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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Optimizing landscape-scale coastal monitoring and reporting through predicted versus observed animal abundance models
ICES Journal of Marine Science, Vol.81(10), pp.1988-2003
2024
Abstract
Effective environmental management hinges on monitoring drivers of change and effectively communicating results to stakeholders. While animals are valuable for engagement, few monitoring programs successfully integrate metrics quantifying their assemblages. We studied fish responses to environmental factors (including landscape context and water quality) in a 3-year survey across six ecosystems and 13 estuaries in eastern Australia (for >1800 fish surveys), and developed a novel predicted versus observed approach to monitoring, grading, and reporting on animal populations. Fish species richness and the abundance of five indicator species were explained significantly by at least one spatial attribute of sites (e.g. connectivity with mangroves and the ocean), and at least one water quality metric reflecting annual median water conditions (especially turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and chlorophyll a concentration). For our grading approaches, predicted values were calculated for each replicate using best-fit models for each indicator, thereby accounting for natural spatiotemporal variation and standardizing site-to-site comparisons. Evaluating six methods for translating values into graded scores for each estuary, we recommend a simple metric: the percentage of sites with observed values above predictions. We discuss this approach as useful and complementary to programs with predominantly physical parameter monitoring, and discuss challenges in establishing ongoing protocols.
Details
- Title
- Optimizing landscape-scale coastal monitoring and reporting through predicted versus observed animal abundance models
- Authors
- Ben L Gilby (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringLucy A Goodridge Gaines (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringChristopher J Henderson - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringHayden P Borland - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringJack Coates-Marnane - Healthy WaterwaysRod M Connolly - Griffith UniversityPaul S Maxwell - Alluvium (Australia)Jesse D Mosman - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringAndrew D Olds - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringHannah J Perry - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringEmily Saeck - Healthy WaterwaysWing Ying Tsoi - Healthy Waterways
- Publication details
- ICES Journal of Marine Science, Vol.81(10), pp.1988-2003
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1093/icesjms/fsae141
- ISSN
- 1095-9289; 1054-3139
- Copyright note
- © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Data Availability
- Data available in the Zenodo repository at doi 10.5281/zenodo.10720035.
- Grant note
- The authors acknowledge Healthy Land and Water and University of the Sunshine Coast for funding.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991066750202621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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