A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring
The productivity and health of coral reef habitat is diminishing worldwide; however, the effect that habitat declines have on coral reef biodiversity is not known. Logistical and financial constraints mean that surveys of hard coral communities rarely collect data at the species level; hence it is i...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Springer Verlag
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51074 |
| _version_ | 1848758607644983296 |
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| author | Richards, Zoe |
| author_facet | Richards, Zoe |
| author_sort | Richards, Zoe |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The productivity and health of coral reef habitat is diminishing worldwide; however, the effect that habitat declines have on coral reef biodiversity is not known. Logistical and financial constraints mean that surveys of hard coral communities rarely collect data at the species level; hence it is important to know if there are proxy metrics that can reliably predict biodiversity. Here, the performances of six proxy metrics are compared using regression analyses on survey data from a location in the northern Great Barrier Reef. Results suggest generic richness is a strong explanatory variable for spatial patterns in species richness (explaining 82 % of the variation when measured on a belt transect). The most commonly used metric of reef health, percentage live coral cover, is not positively or linearly related to hard coral species richness. This result raises doubt as to whether management actions based on such reefscape information will be effective for the conservation of coral biodiversity. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:46:41Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-51074 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:46:41Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Springer Verlag |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-510742017-09-13T15:35:11Z A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring Richards, Zoe The productivity and health of coral reef habitat is diminishing worldwide; however, the effect that habitat declines have on coral reef biodiversity is not known. Logistical and financial constraints mean that surveys of hard coral communities rarely collect data at the species level; hence it is important to know if there are proxy metrics that can reliably predict biodiversity. Here, the performances of six proxy metrics are compared using regression analyses on survey data from a location in the northern Great Barrier Reef. Results suggest generic richness is a strong explanatory variable for spatial patterns in species richness (explaining 82 % of the variation when measured on a belt transect). The most commonly used metric of reef health, percentage live coral cover, is not positively or linearly related to hard coral species richness. This result raises doubt as to whether management actions based on such reefscape information will be effective for the conservation of coral biodiversity. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51074 10.1007/s00338-012-0963-3 Springer Verlag restricted |
| spellingShingle | Richards, Zoe A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring |
| title | A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring |
| title_full | A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring |
| title_fullStr | A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring |
| title_full_unstemmed | A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring |
| title_short | A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring |
| title_sort | comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoring |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51074 |