House Jenny E, Brambilla Viviana, Bidaut Luc M, Christie Alec P, Pizarro Oscar, Madin Joshua S, Dornelas Maria
Center for Biological Diversity, Scottish Oceans Institute, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom.
Clinical Research Imaging Facility, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom.
PeerJ. 2018 Feb 6;6:e4280. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4280. eCollection 2018.
Coral reefs are a valuable and vulnerable marine ecosystem. The structure of coral reefs influences their health and ability to fulfill ecosystem functions and services. However, monitoring reef corals largely relies on 1D or 2D estimates of coral cover and abundance that overlook change in ecologically significant aspects of the reefs because they do not incorporate vertical or volumetric information. This study explores the relationship between 2D and 3D metrics of coral size. We show that surface area and volume scale consistently with planar area, albeit with morphotype specific conversion parameters. We use a photogrammetric approach using open-source software to estimate the ability of photogrammetry to provide measurement estimates of corals in 3D. Technological developments have made photogrammetry a valid and practical technique for studying coral reefs. We anticipate that these techniques for moving coral research from 2D into 3D will facilitate answering ecological questions by incorporating the 3rd dimension into monitoring.
珊瑚礁是一个珍贵且脆弱的海洋生态系统。珊瑚礁的结构会影响其健康状况以及履行生态系统功能和服务的能力。然而，对珊瑚礁的监测很大程度上依赖于对珊瑚覆盖度和丰度的一维或二维估计，这些估计忽略了珊瑚礁在生态重要方面的变化，因为它们没有纳入垂直或体积信息。本研究探讨了珊瑚大小的二维和三维指标之间的关系。我们表明，表面积和体积与平面面积呈一致的比例关系，尽管具有特定形态类型的转换参数。我们使用一种利用开源软件的摄影测量方法来估计摄影测量提供三维珊瑚测量估计值的能力。技术发展使摄影测量成为研究珊瑚礁的一种有效且实用的技术。我们预计，这些将珊瑚研究从二维推进到三维的技术，通过将第三维纳入监测，将有助于回答生态问题。
