Assessing coral reefs worldwide from human impact & climate change (To Make A Global Coral Index)

Methods

Summary

I use a very detailed method in which has been developed by the Sea Around Us team at the University of British Columbia, used to assess fisheries worldwide.  1) Produce global maps of marine eco-regions and EEZ's (GIS) 2) Create a database of different species of coral (Database software and storage) 3) Distribute species worldwide and associate in areas, 4) Allocate known data on coral disease according to ME or EEZ (Data Analysis Experts), 5) Collect available data globally, search for biomass estimates, disease abundance, historical assessments, priors, etc. (IUCN, Reef Resilience, Google Scholar, Libraries, Online Databases, Excel), 6) Run stock assessments for different species / region combinations (R & RStudio, Excel), 7) Assess and quality check the analysis, make needed adjustments (expert knowledge), 8) Rank countries globally according to health and status of coral reef stocks. 9) Inform managing bodies, publicly announce findings, share data on open access for free. 10) Provide insights if needed to stakeholders about proper management, restoration and long-term coral conservation strategies.

Challenges

A challenge which we may face is working with all of the data available and doing so within the 5 year time span. I plan to do this as a full-time conservation initiative so I am super excited to put in the hard work! There is so much free data available online, it would be a shame not to use it.

Pre Analysis Plan

We plan to analyze our findings by creating a hypothesis and testing it with the results and outcomes we obtain from our research. We hypothesize that more than 50% of the worlds coral reefs are dead. After our experts collect, produce and assess the data, we will be able to use mathematical analysis' to assess our findings. Whatever the outcome may be, the results will be immensely useful for stakeholders and managing bodies to be informed of the current status of their countries coral reefs. The data we will provide them with will be useful for decision making in restoration efforts, long-term plans, marine protected areas, regulations implementation and conservation needs.