Citizen science provides an important part of coral and seagrass conservation and provides additional data for areas otherwise not visited, and creates awareness of marine habitats with the wider community. Data collected through these programs can provide additional information for the training and validation of coral reef and seagrass mapping and monitoring efforts using earth observation. The RSRC has been actively collaborating with programs such as Coral Watch, Reef Check Australia, Reef Health Impact Survey Data (Eye on the Reef Program), and Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef.

 

Publications:

  • Groll G.G. Monique, Julie Vercelloni, Tania M. Kenyon, Elisa Bayraktarov, Cedric P. van den Berg, Daniel Haris, Jennifer A. Loder, Morana Mihaljević, Phebe I. Rowland, Chris M. Roelfsema (2020) “Conservation value of a subtropical reef in south-eastern Queensland, Australia, highlighted by citizen-science efforts” Marine and Freshwater research, https://doi.org/10.1071/MF19170

  • Erin Peterson, Edgar Santos-Fernández, Sam Clifford, Carla Chen, Julie Vercelloni, Alan Pearse, Ross Brown, Bryce Christensen, Allan James, Kenneth Anthony, Jennifer Loder, Manuel González-Rivero, Chris Roelfsema, Julian Caley, Tomasz Bednarz, Kerrie Mengersen (2019) Monitoring through many eyes: Integrating scientific and crowd-sourced datasets to improve monitoring of the Great Barrier Reef. Environmental Modelling & Software 124: 104557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104557

  • Schläppy Maire Lise, Jennifer Loder, Jodi Salmond, Alexandra Lea, Angela J. Dean and Chris Roelfsema (2017) “Making waves: coral reef citizen science for impact” Frontiers, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00146

  • Terence Done, Chris Roelfsema, Andrew Harvey, Laura Fantozzi, Jocelyn Hill, Marie-Lise Schläppy , Alexandra Lea, Anne Bauer-Civiello, and Jennifer Loder (2017) Reliability and utility of citizen science reef monitoring data collected by Reef Check Australia, 2002 - 2015 Marine Pollution Bulletin http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.054

  • Chris Roelfsema, Ruth Thurstan, Maria Beger, Christine Dudgeon, Jennifer Loder, Eva Kovacs, Michele Gallo, Jason Flower, K-le Gomez Cabrera, Juan Ortiz, Lea, Diana Kleine (2016) A Citizen Science Approach: A Detailed Ecological Assessment of Subtropical Reefs at Point Lookout, Australia. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163407. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163407

  • Joyce, K.E., S.R. Phinn, C.M. Roelfsema, D.T. Neil and W.C. Dennison (2004). Combining Landsat ETM and Reef Check for Mapping Coral Reefs: An Example from the Southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Coral Reefs, 21: 264–274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-003-0357-7

 

Project Details

Locations: Various

People: Chris Roelfsema (PI)

Funding: Coral Watch, Reef Check, Virtual Reef Diver, Great Reef Census, Seagrass watch, Eye On The Reef

Timeframe: 2000 -