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USGS Pacific Coral Reefs Website

Instruments and Techniques Used to Monitor Coral Reefs

The above diagram shows many of the different monitoring techniques the USGS uses to characterize coral reef systems and dynamics.

Land-based digital cameras collect still images every few hours throughout the day to capture resuspension events.

Hydrodynamics tripods are equipped with a number of different instruments to measure currents, temperature, salinity, and turbidity.

Wave gauges are pressure sensors that allow scientists to measure the height of the water column above the instrument repeatedly every minute.

Sediment traps passively collect sediment that drops out of resuspension in the water column. We can measure either total volume over an extended period (single stationary tube), or discrete volumes over pre-determined shorter time events (rotary time-series).

The Benthic Imaging System collects images every few hours, both day and night, to capture resuspension and settling on the seafloor.

Biologic monitoring transects are revisited annually to statistically collect data such as percent coral cover, health, and rugosity (roughness).

GPS drifters travel along with the nearshore currents and relay their position in real-time to a base station.

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