Featured image above: a volunteer monitors coral bleaching using Coralwatch’s citizen science survey. Credit: Coralwatch
Who did the research?
CoralWatch, based at the University of Queensland and funded by multiple external organisations.
What is the citizen science project about?
CoralWatch is a citizen data (‘citizen science’) initiative to monitor coral health worldwide. It is the first attempt at providing useful data on coral reef health at large scale with non-invasive tools. Scientists, school groups, dive centres and tourists can measure coral bleaching using the Coral Health Chart – a simple plastic square – and add their data to the CoralWatch database.
Coral bleaching occurs when increased water temperatures causes coral to expel their symbiotic algae that help absorb nutrients and provide corals vibrant colour. Rising sea temperatures due to climate change have caused unprecedented levels of coral bleaching.
What is the real-life data impact of the research or project?
Since CoralWatch started in 2002, over 146,000 corals from 1,228 reefs have been surveyed across 70 countries. This data is freely available online for use in scientific analysis and for educational purposes such as school projects.
Several studies have used the CoralWatch data to track the status of coral reefs around the world. The project has also been instrumental in raising public concern on the severity of the ecosystem crisis many reefs are undergoing, such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Find out more – watch the CoralWatch video
Click here to visit the Coralwatch website.
Share your own story of data impact
This article on citizen science was first published by the Australian National Data Service on 21 October 2016. Read the original article here.
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