{"id":1058,"date":"2021-10-18T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T07:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/sustainable-software\/?p=1058"},"modified":"2021-10-18T10:47:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T09:47:52","slug":"using-ml-to-monitor-coral-reef-bleaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/sustainable-software\/using-ml-to-monitor-coral-reef-bleaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Using ML to monitor coral reef bleaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Coral Reefs & B<\/b>leaching<\/b><\/span> Events<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Coral reefs form home for an estimated 25% of all marine life incorporating more than four thousand species of fish and over a million other aquatic species that live, breed, and are dependent on coral reef ecosystems during their lifetime [1]. This number is significantly important if we consider that coral reefs form just under 0.1% of the oceans’ surface area. In addition, almost half a million people are dependent on coral reef ecosystems as they provide protection for coastal infrastructure and prevention from storms, tsunamis, and floods; they are sources for medicine, fishing, and tourism activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Great Barrier Reef<\/strong> located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, is the world\u2019s largest coral reef system identified to be one of the seven natural wonders on Earth. Unfortunately, the reef has already lost over half of the reef’s coral cover between 1995 and 2017, especially with the effects of widespread bleaching outbreak events that took place in 2016, 2017, and with the latest bleaching event taking place in the summer of 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is coral bleaching?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Corals are animals with a polymorphic structure. They have a calcium carbonate skeleton that lives in a symbiotic relationship with a type of algae called “zooxanthellae”\u00a0 in their tissues which provides the essential nutrients to corals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coral bleaching is occurring when corals expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white due to a coral bleaching event such as extreme weather and water conditions like a tornado or a cyclone, causing a water temperature change. Coral reefs are very sensitive to temperature change therefore water temperature changes stress them out. Although corals may survive a bleaching event, however, if the stress continues and the algae loss is prolonged, the coral will eventually die due to a lack of nutrients [2].<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Coral Bleaching Stages [4]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Human activities have caused average global temperature to rise about 1\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels, causing marine heatwaves and triggering more frequent and more severe mass bleaching events. In February 2020, the Great Barrier Reef was subjected to the hottest sea surface temperatures since records began in 1900, leading to one of the most widespread bleaching events.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 How corals become bleached [3]<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

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Monitoring bleaching events<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Monitoring coral reefs at scale is costly, time-consuming, and complex. Current technology practices for monitoring coral reefs\u2019 health and for inspecting coral bleaching events use various sources for data and image collection including satellites, airborne and ship-based mediums such as sonars, and performance of visually inspected underwater surveys. While satellite-based remote sensors have been quite popular for large scale coral reef monitoring they are limited by weather conditions (e.g., cloud, snow, fog), aerial pollution, and camera resolution not being able to provide finer granularity detail of the coral reef ecosystems and their benthic conditions at greater water depth. For example, in Australia, due to the scale of the Great Barrier\u2019s Reef ecosystem, the resolution of images from satellites is not always satisfactory in order to analyse the coral bleaching events and monitor their state. On the other hand, divers required for underwater surveys have limited capacity in covering ground and study the reef ecosystem at its full scale. In fact, only 0.3 % of the Great Barrier Reef has been surveyed by divers.<\/p>\n

An Innovative Approach based on UASs & Machine Learning<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n

Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have been exploring the use of unmanned aerial systems (UASs) as a cost-efficient monitoring medium for coral bleaching inspection and surveillance of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.<\/p>\n