Coral Health and Citizen Science
6. Bibliography
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Watkinson, A. R. (2009). Flattening of Caribbean coral reefs: region-wide declines in architectural complexity.
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• Burgess, H. K., DeBey, L. B., Froehlich, H. E., Schmidt, N., Theobald, E. J., Ettinger, A. K., … Parrish, J. K. (2017).
The science of citizen science: Exploring barriers to use as a primary research tool. Biological Conservation, 208, 113–120. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.05.014
• Carilli, J. (2013, June 17). Why Are Coral Reefs Important? Retrieved February 20, 2018, from https://
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• Coral Health Atlas. (2018). Coral Health. Retrieved February 13, 2018, from http://coralhealth.uhh.hawaii.
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In order to effectively asses this method’s potential to be used for reliably monitoring coral reef bleaching in Aruba, the engagement of more citizen scientists from Aruba would have been ideal. Only 9 citizen scientists participated in the project, many of whom were university students, which is not an accurate representation of the average Aruban resident. Additionally, only two shallow, close-shore sites were evaluated with these three transects, which might not give a reliable image of the applicability across the entire island’s reefs.
The study looked at how well the multiple observers could estimate the colour bleaching status, but the health chart’s purpose is also to monitor bleaching events. This was not done in this study since no major bleaching event took place at the time of data gathering. Moreover, Aruban coral health is not only influenced by the bleaching status.
Other health problems, like physical destruction of reef structures, sedimentation, algae growth and diseases are bigger problems in Aruba. These issues are not monitored with this methodology. Thus, while bleaching status might be observed reliably, this might not be a robust indicator of ecosystem health by itself.
5.2 Further research and recommendations
Longitudinal research into coral health and coral bleaching on Aruba would be necessary to assess whether this method can truly assess these events.
Furthermore, to accurately assess coral reef health on Aruba different factors should be studied as well, such as, coral cover, fish populations, algae growth and sedimentation rates. In combination with a bleaching assessment, these assessments could give a better estimation of the development of coral health in Aruba’s shallow, near shore waters. Furthermore, Aruba also has deeper waters with coral reefs that should to be studied. Multi-approach marine health assessments would be advisable there as well to reliably monitor coral health.
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… Stewart Alan. (2018). Population variability in species can be deduced from opportunistic citizen science records: a case study using British butterflies.
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Thresholds and the resilience of Caribbean coral reefs.
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dcnanature.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/
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en/publications/oil-refinery-impacts-on-coral-reef-communities-in-aruba-na
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Caribbean Corals in Crisis: Record Thermal Stress, Bleaching, and Mortality in 2005. PLOS ONE, 5(11), e13969. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013969
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Watkinson, A. R. (2003). Long-Term Region-Wide Declines in Caribbean Corals. Science, 301(5635), 958–960. doi:10.1126/science.1086050
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| Gump Station. Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.moorea.berkeley.edu/research/projects/
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• Great Barrier Reef Foundation. (2016). ReefBlitz.
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barrierreef.org/get-involved/events/reef-blitz
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The ‘Whip’ 2.0’s windows are winded down, we’re cruising (or more like bustling along) towards Boca Catalina. The speaker’s are blaring, it’s Daniel’s Dutch rap playlist, the sounds that we initially regarded with great hesitation are now transformed into requested car karaoke favourites. Outside, the silhouettes of passing Palm trees are slowly become more distinct as we chase the sun’s descent. Clutching tight to the warm metal pot on my lap, tightly packed together, there’s an air of eagerness and anticipation to reach the beach for the sunset and to unwind.
We untangle ourselves out of the car and wander to our perfect spot. There’s a warm evening breeze and we serve food amongst ourselves over the exchanges of words, thoughts and laughter. The laughter is contagious and creates a chain reaction amplified throughout the group.
A usual game of “Times Up” is followed, bringing out the
fun but competitive nature of our characters. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to spend these moments with.
As the sun dips to the surface of the ocean, it’s huey yellow glow scatters, refracts and reflects across the waves, prompting a moment of reflection of our own. As day transforms into night, we meander into the water for a refreshing swim, cutting through the silver traced sea surface. An evening swim is certainly one of my favourite ways to relax. For me, the escapism of exploring natural environments is ever so rewarding. Which is why the choice for my research study was ideal for me.
Conducting fieldwork in the mangrove forests was an engaging and physically exerting experience. Swinging, jumping, crawling, lifting, gripping tight across the densely packed branches and roots of the mangroves made me have a deeper appreciation and understanding of their complex but fascinating physiology. I also became somewhat too familiar to their fauna, confronting in close quarters to ants, spiders, rats, hermit crabs, curious geckos and if I was really unfortunate Palm Island’s beautiful boisterous peacock.
Fortunately, I had the pleasure of others helping me with my mangrove fieldwork. First a special thank you to my two Academic Foundation Year (AFY) apprentices Danick Netto and Tyronn Kelly, for their incredible motivation and hard working attitude throughout, whether that be through conducting fieldwork or testing samples or finding unusual species on the field. A great thank you to my fellow researchers, friends and family who embraced the physical challenges of mangrove fieldwork (Nora, Emma, Annemieke, Fabian, Daniel, Luc, Heather, Morgan, Xavier, Dirijini and Luis). I would also like to thank all of the students of the UA-UCU program for our time spent together, whether that be soft ball, our DIY Prom event, amazing boat trip or university study sessions.
Emmeline Long, University College Utrecht
UAUCUStudent Research Exchange Collected Papers 2018
124 I’m incredibly grateful for the experiences and development I’ve had (personally and academically) from this program, thus, a huge thank you to those who made this program possible. Firstly Eric Mijts who has led and guided us to reach our optimal research goals, offering with his help for every stage. Also to Jocelyn Ballantyne, who helped me set goals and find the measures to achieve them. Additionally to Kitty Groothuijse for all her advice and support towards my research. Moreover, to Carlos Rodriguez, for the organising and leading of the partnership between the AFY and UA-UCU Program, and the occasional practice of Chinese words.
I would also like to give significant acknowledgements to Maarten Eppinga my thesis supervisor, for all his guidance in planning, preparing for all the stages of my research as well as his fast responses of constructive feedback on my progress.
I would like to thank Leopoldo Henriquez, who took the time to discuss the history of oil spills on the island, methodology on oil analysis, as well as providing essential reading materials to support my research.
Additionally, a thank you to Miriam van de Plassche for enabling me to conduct my fieldwork on Palm Island. Furthermore, I would also like to thank Gisbert Boekhoudt for organizing a permit to ship my samples to the Netherlands.
Finally I would like to give an enormous thank you to my family and friends. My parents and younger brother have shown consistent morale support, as well as valuable suggested input and relieved any moments of my own self doubt, through their encouragement prior and throughout this program (both from the UK and from my mum’s visit over).
Introduction
Currently, mangrove forests are found on less than one per cent of the Earth’s surface (Bond, 2017). Their role as an ecosystem holds significant value both economically and environmentally. They provide a number of ecological services, including biochemical, conservation and coastal protection roles of purpose. Their value is recognisable biochemically, as mangrove forests have the
“capacity to recycle nutrients” (Getter, Scott & Michel, 1981, p. 536). They are also well equipped to store high amounts of organic matter and possess the capability
“to sequester heavy metals and other toxic materials”
(Getter, Scott & Michel, 1981, p. 536). Mangrove forests are also distinguished by their effectivity as a carbon sink, established as the most carbon-rich forest type of the tropics (Kawalekar, 2015). Henceforth, from a global scale, the conservation of this forest type provides as a mitigation method of climate change (Hutchison et al., 2014), through the storage capacity of carbon stocks.
In addition to this, mangrove forests are essential for maintaining marine biodiversity through their role as nurseries of fishing species (Manson, Loneragan, Skilleter & Phinn, 2005). The mangroves demonstrate this role, by acting as a refuge for fish populations against predators, as well as a providing a ”source of nutrients” for these species to prosper (Manson, Loneragan, Skilleter &
Phinn, 2005, p. 497).
Mangroves as a species are situated along the tropical and subtropical coastlines of the world, found in approximately 120 countries (Duke et al., 2007). This collection of countries includes the group of small island states (SIS), which share several characteristics such as being physically small in nature, surrounded by “large expanses of ocean”, having “limited natural resources”
and “limited funds, human resources and skills” (Nurse et al., 2001, p. 845). Mangrove ecosystems play a necessary role for SIS, for example, mangrove forests contribute to sustaining the practice of fishery trade, “where 80 percent of marine catches are directly or indirectly dependent on mangroves” (Bond, 2017, p. 612). Thus, they are essential in providing a more cost-efficient solution to conserving the economies of the fishing industry.
Another crucial ecological service this species provides is that it serves as a natural coastline protection by
“reducing wave energy”, “increasing sedimentation” of soils and “reducing erosion” (Spalding et al., 2014, p.
51). From this, they serve effectively as barriers “against coastal erosion by stabilizing sediments” (Valiela, Bowen
& York, 2001, p. 811). This is evident as in a previous research study of Southern Thailand, it was found that rates of erosion were reduced among coastal areas with the presence of mangroves in comparison to areas without (Thampanya, Vermaat, Sinsakul & Panapitukkul,