Data Products for Coral Reef Managers Tyler Christensen Mark Eakin NOAA Coral Reef Watch Using satellite data to provide current reef environmental conditions, quickly identifying areas at risk for coral bleaching Updated twice a week All data and images are absolutely free, and in the public domain Global Data Products 50km Nighttime SST SST Anomaly HotSpot Degree Heating Weeks Virtual Station Data Products Still using satellite data only Focus on 191 coral reef locations around the world For managers: bleaching alerts Bottom Line for Managers Is my reef currently at risk for bleaching? Bottom Line for Managers Is my reef at risk for bleaching in the near future? Experimenting With Other Remote Sensing Products Ocean Acidification Disease Outbreak Risk Light Stress Damage Doldrums Bleaching Threshold Lab experiments by Glynn & DCroz, Atwood, Goreau & Hays in early 1990s Bleaching happens when water temperature rises above a threshold When the ocean gets hot and stays hot, corals are stressed. Coral Reef Watch Products: Bleaching Stress from Satellites Al Strong with his USNA students 1994 breakfast with Vice President Gore 11 Training Workshops Thirteen capacity-building workshops: American Samoa to US Virgin Islands Australia to Bonaire to Zanzibar Trained over 300 scientists and managers on: Coral Reef Watch satellite data products Predicting bleaching, assessing impacts Resilient MPAs and Response Plans Many, many partners Merged w/TNC Reef Resilience training Collaboration Workshops Managers talk about information needs Remote sensing scientists talk about whats possible Series of workshops over the last 10 years or so Coming up in Australia next month! 13 Outreach and Education Other Interactions w/Data Userscommunications, Coral List Bleaching reports from the field (ReefBase, Coral List,s to Al, etc.) Managers conferences (ITMEMS, GCFI) Photos: Caroline Rogers, USGS Challenges Focus has been on new trainees; need to connect with established users Lack of awareness in NESDIS/STAR about remote sensing interpreted for the management community Most ground-truthing is anecdotal Suggestions Involve managers from the beginning Face-to-face outreach is best Deliver interpreted products with added meaning, not just raw data Deliver in easy-to-use formats (Google Earth, online images, simple graphs, open GIS, etc.)