Coral Atlas Research Blog

Welcome to the Allen Coral Atlas blog where we bring you regular updates on our research, methods, and exciting new data.

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Introducing new and improved annual turbidity datasets

March 14, 2024Dr. Greg Asner

Most know that coral reefs are threatened by ocean warming, but fewer may realize that water quality is just as important in determining the health of our reefs. We at the Allen Coral Atlas continue to work on improving ocean turbidity monitoring, to support you, our users in your efforts to monitor, assess, and mitigate sources of turbidity over time. Today we announce our new annual ocean turbidity product, carefully derived from satellite imagery, and developed and presented for your long-term, annual monitoring of water quality trends over reefs of your interest and concern.

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How much coral reef is out there to save?

August 15, 2023Brianna Bambic

The global area of coral reefs is 423,589 square kilometers as determined by the Allen Coral Atlas, or 163,549 square miles - similar to the size of Papua New Guinea's land mass. Read on for more information about global coral reefs.

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New Alert: Global Tracking of Coral Bleaching Events

June 20, 2023Dr. Andrea Rivera-Sosa

The Atlas team is excited to launch a brand new feature, bleaching alerts. These email alerts will allow reef managers, decision makers, scientists, dive operators, environmental journalists and the general public to discover where corals are bleaching in near real-time. They can be assigned to a user’s priority areas to mobilize monitoring groups and prompt communication with stakeholders. Ultimately, these alerts are in place to help respond to a bleaching event. Image Credit: The Ocean Agency

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Reinvigorating Our Pulse on the Reef: Advancements in Coral Bleaching Monitoring

April 20, 2023Chiara Moore

The Allen Coral Atlas recently launched an updated version of its coral bleaching monitoring system, including nearly five years' worth of coral bleaching data. This new data allows you to identify coral reef areas that have been hit with bleaching year after year amongst those that have experienced no bleaching at all. Read on for more details of what makes the new system different from the original bleaching monitoring system on the Atlas.

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Accelerating impact in 2022: the latest Allen Coral Atlas Impact Report

March 29, 2023Brianna Bambic

In 2022 we focused our time on innovation and furthering our dynamic monitoring tools alongside community engagement and events. Read more about our highlights from 2022 here.

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What went into the 2022 geomorphic and benthic map update?

December 12, 2022Chris Roelfsema, Mitch Lyons, Kathryn Markey, Chantel Say, and Brianna Bambic

In April 2022, the Allen Coral Atlas began updating the global habitat maps based on user feedback and ongoing research, culminating in the complete second version released December 2022. What went into such improvements, and how do they differ from the first version?

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Allen Coral Atlas launches Reef Threats system

October 8, 2022Dr. Greg Asner

A toxic cocktail of land- and sea-based pollution, combined with increasing resource extraction, is taking out some blue ecosystems far faster than climate change. And the one-two punch of global and local stress is driving coastal losses at an accelerating rate. While each monitoring product we create offers new insight into how conditions are changing on coral reefs, we want to find out where those one-two punches are occurring. We believe such cases offer reef conservationists and managers an opportunity for more tactical interventions. And to further empower Atlas users, today we’re launching a new capability called REEF THREATS, an integrated monitoring platform within the Allen Coral Atlas that links changes in water temperature and water quality to coral reefs and coral bleaching.

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Allen Coral Atlas assists the work of the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation with local coastal resource managers in South Negros, Philippines

May 10, 2022Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation

“You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” Conservation requires science for a well-founded understanding of the ecosystems our communities depend on. What we found in years of working with coastal resource managers, however, is that this science needs to be effectively visualized and communicated to mobilize leaders and stakeholders into concrete actions on the ground.

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Coral Bleaching Detected in the GBR since 1998: The role of the Atlas

March 18, 2022Makenna Flynn

Off the coast of Australia, the sixth wonder of the world sits below the waves and is both beautiful and critical to our planet - the Great Barrier Reef. The marine ecosystem captures carbon through seagrass and mangroves, generates significant economic activity through tourism, protects the coastline from storms and wave erosion, and supports thousands of marine species. But experts warn of a critical threat against this underwater wonder. Leading coral scientist, Professor Terry Hughes, is raising the alarm that the Great Barrier Reef is at the beginning of its sixth mass bleaching event since 1998. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority adds that low and moderate bleaching is being reported for different areas of the marine region. For some corals, this bleaching could be a death sentence.

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From a vision to impact: Allen Coral Atlas Impact Report 2021

January 27, 2022Brianna Bambic

If you are reading this, you are a part of our ever-growing community, and we want to share and celebrate our successes with you. In our first ever Impact Report, we detail some impactful stories that users of the Atlas have shared with us.

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The Allen Coral Atlas to Drive Ocean Sustainability

November 30, 2021Makenna Flynn

The ocean covers 71% of our planet's surface. And one particular underwater ecosystem provides a lifeline for life below water and life on land - coral reefs. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), the UN Ocean Envoy Peter Thomson stressed the urgency of climate action, “There's no more debate about are we heading towards 2.7 or 3 [degrees] or way over... what it's about now is, what are we doing about it? What are the solutions?”

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A community united to protect the world’s coral reefs

September 27, 2021Makenna Flynn

In 2017, the Allen Coral Atlas founding organizations set out to create global habitat maps and connect a community of coral conservationists, researchers, and educators around the world. This became the Allen Coral Atlas. Last month, the Atlas completed mapping the world’s coral reefs. How did the team do it? This global map had several key ingredients including advanced analytics, high-resolution satellite imagery, and the glue that brings it together – teamwork.

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Allen Coral Atlas Completes First Global Coral Reef Maps

September 8, 2021Makenna Flynn

From offering food security and protecting coastlines to supporting 25 percent of the ocean’s marine biodiversity, coral reefs play a vital role for this planet. And for these marine ecosystems, information is opening new doors for targeted action. On September 8, 2021, the Allen Coral Atlas met a major milestone by completing global habitat maps of the world’s tropical, shallow coral reefs.

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From Sand to Satellites: 14 to 22°S & 135 to 148°W

August 10, 2021Olivia Wyatt

There is a Tahitian myth of a young king, Rata. He became king after his father and uncle ventured beyond the reef and were swallowed by a giant clam on their way to Pitcairn. Rata grew up with an appetite for revenge. One day, he captured forest elves and they built him a canoe from a tree that he admired. The elves were magic, of course, and...

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World’s First Satellite-Based Coral Reef Monitoring System Deploys Globally, Paving the Way for Innovation Driven Conservation

May 19, 2021Makenna Flynn

It is no secret that the Allen Coral Atlas has a love for the rightfully named “rainforests of the sea.” Coral reefs provide humanity with many core benefits ranging from providing food security with reef fish to stimulating the economy with tourism and much more...

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International Women's Day: Interview with 6 Atlas Women

March 11, 2021Makenna Flynn

For International Women's Day, we chose to interview six of the women working for the Allen Coral Atlas. Their stories re-enforce the truth - women are changing the world. Keep reading to hear from amazing leaders in coral reef conservation.

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Hopeful thoughts from our Coral Reef Conservation Heroes

December 3, 2020Dr. Helen Fox with Coral Reef Conservation Heroes

Over the past few months, we featured interviews with the four winners of International Coral Reef Society’s Coral Reef Conservation Award Dr. Rod Salm, Dr. Nyawira Muthiga, Dr. Alan White and Ms. Sue Wells. We conclude our series with their thoughts on their hope for the future of these precious ecosystems.

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Coral Reef Conservation Heroes Part 4 of 4: Sue Wells

December 2, 2020Dr. Helen Fox with Ms. Sue Wells

Here we interview Ms. Sue Wells, already an ICRS Fellow in recognition of her exceptional service to the Society, including as Founding Chair of ISRS’s Conservation Committee. She co-founded the first International Year of the Reef in 1997, started the first marine program at WWF-International, was a principal author of IUCN’s influential “Coral Reefs of the World,” and has been dedicated to improved coral reef monitoring and to developing capacity in very pragmatic ways.

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Coral Reef Conservation Heroes Part 3 of 4: Dr. Alan White

November 4, 2020Dr. Helen Fox with Dr. Alan White

Dr. Alan T. White currently serves as the Chief of Party for the USAID Sustainable Ecosystems Advanced Project in Indonesia. He has decades of experience with coastal management, implementation, and research, with fieldwork in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia, including substantial work with the Coral Triangle Atlas, an online GIS database of the region established in 2010 as part of the Coral Triangle Initiative.

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Coral Reef Conservation Heroes Part 2 of 4: Dr. Nyawira Muthiga

November 4, 2020Dr. Helen Fox with Dr. Nyawira Muthiga

Dr. Nyawira Muthiga is the Director or Marine Program Kenya and Conservation Scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and co-founded (with Dr. Tim McClanahan) WCS’s coral reef programs. She has improved and strengthened the management of MPAs throughout the Eastern Africa region.

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Coral Reef Conservation Heroes Part 1 of 4: Dr. Rod Salm

October 7, 2020Dr. Helen Fox with Dr. Rod Salm

Coral reef conservation would not be what it is today if it weren’t for a multitude of passionate individuals devoting their lives to the future of this ecosystem. Over the coming weeks, we will be featuring interviews with four such people, all who have received the International Coral Reef Society’s Coral Reef Conservation Award, starting with the inaugural winner, Dr. Rod Salm.

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Conversations with Sustainable Ocean Seychelles: Léo Barret and Team

September 9th, 2020Zoë Lieb, based on interview with Léo Barret, Gilberte Gendron, and Nathalie Bodin

While remote sensing allows the Allen Coral Atlas team to make global habitat maps rapidly and uniformly, there are still things you need a real human to see and interpret. The Field Engagement team caught up with Léo and Gilberte from Sustainable Oceans Seychelles earlier this month to give them a ‘sneak peek’ at the West Indian Ocean maps to identify any major inconsistencies as a result of the semi-automated process used to generate data layers.

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Atlas in the Field, Part 2: Meet CORDIO’s field teams

June 23rd, 2020Brianna Bambic and Zoë Lieb, National Geographic Society

With our newest Eastern Africa and Madagascar region maps just released, we took this opportunity to talk with Swaleh Ali Aboud, Kahaso Chembe, and Isabel Marques da Silva from our field teams about their experience and observations collecting georeferenced phototransects in Kenya, Seychelles, and Mozambique.

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Atlas in the Field, Part 1: Interview with Mike Markovina, WCS-Tanzania

June 23rd, 2020Brianna Bambic and Zoë Lieb, the National Geographic Society

Earlier this spring we had the chance to interview Mike Markovina, Director of the Marine Program for Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Tanzania. He shed some light on the experience of collecting Allen Coral Atlas coral reef data, the declining state of reefs in Eastern Africa, as well as the role of technology in marine conservation.

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Pixels and penguins: an Allen Coral Atlas Antarctic adventure

April 22, 2020Allen Coral Atlas Team

The freezing white expanse of Antarctica couldn’t be more different from tropical warm seas and colorful corals that our resident marine biologist is used to… so what do penguins have to do with pixels?

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Experimental uses of higher resolution satellite imagery

September 5, 2019Daniel Chang

How would you use high-resolution satellite imagery? Our research uncovered how different people use images for coral conservation — and a surprising new arrival on a Marshall Islands reef.

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We’re back with more maps!

April 1, 2020Paulina Gerstner

You may have noticed that we’ve gone quiet for a while. That is because we have been hard at work producing habitat maps and developing other exciting features!

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Meet the team: Vulcan

August 6, 2019Allen Coral Atlas team

The Vulcan team leads development of strategy and impact goals, project and data management, and user engagement. Get to know the team, who recently hosted all of the Allen Coral Atlas partners!

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Meet the team: Planet

July 30, 2019Allen Coral Atlas team

Planet provides high resolution satellite images of coral reefs for the Allen Coral Atlas. Learn more about their work.

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Meet the team: University of Queensland

July 22, 2019Allen Coral Atlas team

The University of Queensland team leverages field protocols with algorithms to produce maps for the Allen Coral Atlas. Get to know the team, who met with all the project partners last week!

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Meet the team: Arizona State University

July 15, 2019Allen Coral Atlas team

The ASU team develops technology to process the satellite images that power the Allen Coral Atlas. Get to know the team and their work as we kickoff our summit meeting this week!

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Meet the team: National Geographic

July 9, 2019Allen Coral Atlas team

The National Geographic Society leads field engagement for the Allen Coral Atlas. Get to know the team and their work! Find out what field engagement means, meet the members of the team, and learn about some of their current activities.

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Inspiring the Allen Coral Atlas team to map the world

July 2, 2019Emma Kennedy, University of Queensland

Sometimes mapping the world’s reefs can seem like an overwhelming task. But recently, the team has been motivated and inspired by the support of some exceptional young people around the world.

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Brainstorming on the beach

June 3, 2019Emma Kennedy, University of Queensland

Heron Island was the perfect location for the UQ mapping team to introduce their Atlas teammates to the Great Barrier Reef, brainstorm ideas, and — more importantly — collect some field data!

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New funds for coral reef field engagement

May 16, 2019Allen Coral Atlas team

The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation is the second funding partner for Allen Coral Atlas. With the new funding from PMAFF, critical verification will continue so that the Atlas can become a reliable monitoring tool for coral conservation.

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Central Great Barrier Reef is now available in the Atlas

May 15, 2019Allen Coral Atlas team

Today, the Central Great Barrier Reef region, from Cairns to Cooktown, was added to the Allen Coral Atlas. 237 reefs are now viewable online, making this the largest addition to the Atlas so far.

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Rapid repeat monitoring of reef threats

May 2, 2019Dr. Greg Asner, ASU Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science

While mapping coral reefs helps us to delineate where they are, what we currently lack is a method to monitor reef change at large geographic scales. My team at ASU is solving some of these problems.

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Atlas adds another layer

April 18, 2019Charlie Whiton

The Allen Coral Atlas continues to increase its capabilities to be an even more powerful tool for coral scientists and policy makers. Alongside development of additional detailed maps - with one scheduled to be completed by the end of May - the Allen Coral Atlas team is continuing to build partnerships and data sharing agreements that make the Atlas more robust.

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Value of a global mosaic of the world's corals

April 4, 2019Dr. Sarah Frias-Torres

What is the value of a global mosaic of the world’s corals? Why is it so special and fantastic? We have photographed every inch of the Moon's surface. We even have done so under multiple lighting situations, allowing for direct comparisons of the same landscape at different lunar phases. Such an effort allows us to land an object on the surface of the Moon within a few feet of target. We don't have the same for the world's coral reefs. 

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Challenges of mapping submerged coral reefs

March 21, 2019Dr. Chris Roelfsema

Coral reefs develop below the surface of the ocean, which makes the use of remote sensing technologies for mapping reef systems much more challenging compared to mapping habitats like forests.

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Diving into field surveys - Fiji field work, Part 2

March 7, 2019Dr. Helen Fox

As I ended the last post, I was preparing to travel to Fiji to meet and work with coral preservation partners. I had just received new cameras to test, and shipped off to Fiji.

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Building a lasting coalition to save coral reefs – Fiji field work, Part 1

February 21, 2019Dr. Helen Fox

As the Allen Coral Atlas develops regionally and then globally, our goal is to engage the wider coral reef science, monitoring, and management community and leverage existing efforts

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Welcome to the blog!

February 11, 2019Paulina Gerstner

Welcome to the Allen Coral Atlas blog, a space for learning about the Allen Coral Atlas team and its work to build the first global mosaic map of the world’s coral reefs – including this reef in Moorea.