Standard Presentation Australian Marine Sciences Association Annual Meeting 2023

Tracking Restoration of Earth’s Coastal Marine Ecosystems From Space   (#344)

Megan Saunders 1 , Christopher Brown 2 , Christina Buelow 2 , Ana Bugnot 1 , Kai Ching Cheong 2 , Valerie Hagger 3 , Catherine Lovelock 3 , Mitchell Lyons 4 , Alejandro Navarro 5 , Renee Piccolo 2 , Chris Roelfsema 6 , Maria Vozzo 1 , Nathan Waltham 7 , Thomas Worthington 8 , Nicholas Murray 5
  1. Environment, CSIRO, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
  2. Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia
  3. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
  4. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  5. College of Science and Engineering, james Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia
  6. School of Earth and Environmental Science, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
  7. TropWater, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia
  8. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Ecological restoration is scaling up, yet in coastal marine ecosystems, despite requiring longer timescales to reach maturity than terrestrial systems, most projects are monitored for 1-2 years. Satellite remote sensing offers opportunities to monitor ecosystems cost-effectively, consistently, over large extents, and through time, with recent advances increasing capacity to quantify environmental and ecological attributes​. In this synthesis we asked: 1) How is satellite remote sensing being used to monitor and evaluate outcomes of coastal marine restoration? 2) How can new technologies and approaches be harnessed to assess restoration outcomes? Extent is the most commonly assessed attributes in remote sensing and restoration literature. However, ecologists also require information on structural, biophysical, and socio-economic attributes to effectively manage and monitor restoration outcomes. The research makes conceptual links with remote sensing and restoration ecology more explicit than previously described; provides case-studies to demonstrate how remote sensing can be applied to restoration; and bridges gaps between how remote sensing and restoration scientists think about monitoring. Our study highlights potential for advances in satellite remote sensing to be applied to coastal marine restoration including large-scale monitoring through time, to ultimately deliver on global efforts to effectively scale-up and monitor progress towards targets.