{"id":927,"date":"2019-07-03T15:47:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T14:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/?p=927"},"modified":"2019-07-03T15:47:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T14:47:16","slug":"investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words by Ben Williams, 2019 BioScience Graduate<\/em><\/p>\n

Most people are aware coral reefs throughout the world are struggling one way or another. A range
\nof issues are responsible including overfishing, pollution and climate change induced bleaching to
\nname a few. However, coral reef communities provide valuable ecosystem services to a vast number
\nof individuals, it\u2019s estimated One Billion people have some degree of dependence on these
\necosystems. With much of the world\u2019s reefs degraded or lost it makes conserving those that remain
\nvital, and restoration of former reefs an important endeavour to many individuals.<\/p>\n

The Marine Bioacoustics group in Exeter focuses much of their efforts on understanding the
\nsoundscapes of coral reefs. These soundscapes encompass the entirety of the sound that can be
\nheard on particular spots of the reef and can be collected using underwater microphones we call
\nhydrophones. Emerging research suggests a lot can be determined about a reef from a few key
\nparameters within its soundscape which could be used to indicate the health of the surrounding
\nreef. A great example is shown in the spectrograms below, where you can hear an audible difference
\nbetween the soundscape of a healthy reef and that of a degraded reef:<\/p>\n\n

This short acoustic clip first plays us the buzz of a healthy reef, followed by the quieter setting heard on a degraded reef<\/em><\/p>\n

A group of us from Exeter\u2019s Marine Bioacoustics group are currently out in Indonesia exploring reef
\nacoustics further. We\u2019re collaborating with a project set up by Mars\u2122, who have been working on an
\nintuitive way to restore the reefs in South Sulawesi. They use two key methods in doing so, the first
\nis coral propagation, where small samples of coral are clipped off live colonies and transported
\nsomewhere new where they grow back at a faster rate than if left on their original colony. The next
\nstep is to attach these to a skeleton system they call \u2018Spiders\u2019, which provide a substrate for new
\ncorals to colonise and elevate them slightly above the reef bottom to provide the water flow needed
\nto bring nutrients to the growing coral. The Mars\u2122 project has implemented large areas of these
\nspiders around two islands off Makassar with an impressive degree of success in their ability to
\nrestore the reef.<\/p>\n

\"\"
This photo shows some of the several month old spiders placed by the Mars\u2122\u00a0 team which are showing an impressive rate of growth.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our team from Exeter is particularly interested in the difference between the soundscapes of healthy and degraded reefs. We\u2019re visiting the Mars\u2122 restoration efforts to help explore the differences in soundscapes between their restored sites, degraded sites and baseline healthy sites. The hope is that in the future we will be able to show\u00a0restored sites match the soundscape of healthy sites, and a quantifiable difference between the restored sites and degraded sites will be observable. We\u2019re trialing this out using hydrophones which we\u2019ve been\u00a0placing daily on different sites within the reefs to determine whether this is a feasible methodology in comparing the reef soundscape.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ellie May deploying a GoPro to film our quadrat used for the underwater playback test.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re also exploring the possibility of using \u2018soundscape enhancement\u2019 to help fine tune the ecology of the reef at a local scale to bring about restorative impacts. This is a highly innovative approach in which submersible loudspeakers are placed on patches of degraded reefs where they play recordings that may help recovery of the reef. A proof of concept of this was only recently provided in a 2018 study authored by Tim Gordon, who is now leading the expedition out here in Indonesia, and other members of the
\nMarine Bioacoustics group. The study found that larval and juvenile recruitment was greater at sites where healthy reef noise was played compared to sites where degraded reef noise was played. The use of soundscape enhancement is therefore of a great interest to restoration programmes like Mars\u2122 in Indonesia, and we\u2019re also out here to help them investigate whether this could be a potentially useful tool for their restoration. This time we\u2019re trialing playback methods that could be used to affect the ecology of adult fish within the reef, primarily regarding their grazing behaviour which is a key process in controlling algae overgrowth at degraded sites.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#ExeterMarine<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is an interdisciplinary group of marine related researchers with capabilities across the scientific, biological,\u00a0 medical, engineering, humanities and social science fields.<\/em><\/p>\n

Find us on:\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0:\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0:\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0:\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I<\/strong><\/em>f you are interested in working with our researchers or students, contact\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Michael Hanley<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>visit our website<\/em><\/strong><\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words by Ben Williams, 2019 BioScience Graduate Most people are aware coral reefs throughout the world are struggling one way or another. A range of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":773,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[73,155,157,229,431,433,573],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInvestigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration - Exeter Marine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration - Exeter Marine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Words by Ben Williams, 2019 BioScience Graduate Most people are aware coral reefs throughout the world are struggling one way or another. A range of […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Exeter Marine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-03T14:47:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/203\/2019\/07\/GOPR0026-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ee320\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ee320\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/\",\"name\":\"Investigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration - Exeter Marine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/203\/2019\/07\/GOPR0026-300x225.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-03T14:47:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-03T14:47:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#\/schema\/person\/3cae696ceea5f394b979bc4c58228668\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/203\/2019\/07\/GOPR0026-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/203\/2019\/07\/GOPR0026-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1920,\"caption\":\"DCIM100GOPROGOPR0026.JPG\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Investigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/\",\"name\":\"Exeter Marine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#\/schema\/person\/3cae696ceea5f394b979bc4c58228668\",\"name\":\"ee320\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ee0989725c6c343927738a926c4ed30?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ee0989725c6c343927738a926c4ed30?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ee320\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/author\/ee320\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Investigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration - Exeter Marine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Investigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration - Exeter Marine","og_description":"Words by Ben Williams, 2019 BioScience Graduate Most people are aware coral reefs throughout the world are struggling one way or another. A range of […]","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/","og_site_name":"Exeter Marine","article_published_time":"2019-07-03T14:47:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/203\/2019\/07\/GOPR0026-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"ee320","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ee320","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/","name":"Investigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration - Exeter Marine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/203\/2019\/07\/GOPR0026-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2019-07-03T14:47:16+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-03T14:47:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#\/schema\/person\/3cae696ceea5f394b979bc4c58228668"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/203\/2019\/07\/GOPR0026-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/203\/2019\/07\/GOPR0026-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1920,"caption":"DCIM100GOPROGOPR0026.JPG"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/2019\/07\/03\/investigating-coral-reef-acoustics-to-aid-reef-restoration\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Investigating Coral Reef Acoustics to Aid Reef Restoration"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/","name":"Exeter Marine","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#\/schema\/person\/3cae696ceea5f394b979bc4c58228668","name":"ee320","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ee0989725c6c343927738a926c4ed30?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ee0989725c6c343927738a926c4ed30?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ee320"},"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/author\/ee320\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/773"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/exetermarine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}