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Coral Reef Awareness Week was held around the globe during the week of July 15 as an annual reminder of the importance of these underwater ecosystems. But since these structures are vital to the waters they bring home and the land we live on, I’d say they deserve a lot more attention than they can get in just seven days – especially among global warming.
Even apart from their natural purpose, these habitats are extremely important to the economy. They are responsible for approximately $9.8 trillion annually worldwide; in the United States alone, the services provided by coral reefs in the form of fisheries, tourism and coastal protection are in excess of $3.4 billion per year.
On the bright side, thanks to satellitesscientists are able to better understand the “rainforests of the sea,” which are home to nearly 25% of our planet’s marine life, including more than 4,000 different types of fish.
Coral Reef Awareness Week was held around the globe during the week of July 15 as an annual reminder of the importance of these underwater ecosystems. But since these structures are vital to the waters they bring home and the land we live on, I’d say they deserve a lot more attention than they can get in just seven days – especially among global warming.
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Even apart from their natural purpose, these habitats are extremely important to the economy. They are responsible for approximately $9.8 trillion annually worldwide; in the United States alone, the services provided by coral reefs in the form of fisheries, tourism and coastal protection are in excess of $3.4 billion per year.
On the bright side, thanks to satellitesscientists are able to better understand the “rainforests of the sea,” which are home to nearly 25% of our planet’s marine life, including more than 4,000 different types of fish.
“One of the main challenges before the satellites was our coverage of the seabed. We needed more boat-based technology, for example sonar, to monitor different areas but it was always trivial,” Andrea Rivera-Sosa, project and outreach manager for the organization. Global Conservation Science Programme with the Coral Reef Alliance, said Space.com. “Some areas had more resources and maps and other unexplored areas had less coverage. Satellites bring new technology to increase our coverage with global maps.”
“When you use satellites,” continued Rivera-Sosa, “depending on the resolution and the type of image, you can get a big picture of the size of the reef. You are able to see many parameters like water color, and then you can take that image and process it to see its depth and bathymetry among other parameters. If the water is green, there are more algae and if it is clear, there are less nutrients rivers and other sources.”
![A globe over a white background is surrounded by different illustrations of different satellites. This diagram shows the 9 satellites (5 geostationary satellites [orange] and 4 polar orbits [blue]updated July 18, 2023) which adds data to the daily global monitoring products 5km satellite coral bleaching.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/GGpiLZ53K9FM6tvSXSDbhg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/space_311/2c9df432e95d20984541c44a6c1e5792)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been at the forefront of establishing a network to monitor and study global coral reefs. In 2000, the organization created a program called the Coral Reef Watch (CRW)and over the past 20 years, partnerships have grown among reef managers and researchers using imagery and data from NOAA satellites, computer models, and real-.time observations. Overall, CRW has greatly helped scientists to monitor the health of the reefs as well as any threats these habitats faced from pollution, climate change and overfishing.
“We know that coral reefs remain in serious trouble due to ocean warming in particular, but we also know that reductions in coastal pollution and increases in reef fish stocks can help reefs become more resilient in the long term,” Greg Asner, director of the European Commission. The University of Arizona’s Global Discovery and Conservation Science Center told Space.com. “As a director of the Allen’s Coral Atlas (ACA)we have excellent tracking of how our satellite data streams are helping people manage and monitor coral reefs around the world.”
“We average about 60,000 users per year and about 600 to 800 dataset downloads per month,” continued Asner. “Our users make decisions using ACA data on matters related to marine spatial planning and protection including 35 new marine protected areas and similar designations from 2020. Many of our users also monitor water quality and coral bleaching using the ACA – the only global area source for this information on World.”
Back in April, NOAA shared that, for the fourth time in recorded history, a global coral bleaching event is underway. Images and data from satellites gave scientists and researchers confirmation of the event and where coral was most stressed by these historically warm ocean waters.
Fleet of watchful eyes from space able to detect changes in site temperature on a relatively large scale, even in remote locations that have been a challenge in the past to obtain data. This is just one example of how satellite imagery keeps the world up to date on climate change impacts, allowing scientists to better understand our planet, identify problems and drive positive change and adaptation .
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“We are all connected to the ocean, one way or another. Satellites have also helped to provide information on the impacts of climate change at a level we did not have before. Satellite data provides support for sea surface temperature, sea level rise sea, bleaching, and it can also provide information on ocean acidification,” said Rivera-Sosa. “The oceans help regulate our climate; they’re absorbing all this energy that we humans produce. If we keep warming our system, our oceans get warmer and lose their ability to regulate our climate control. We’re seeing bigger and stronger hurricane events. And this is affecting us, wherever we live.”
