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Emerging technology has immense potential to increase the scale and efficiency of marine conservation. One such technology is large-area imaging (LAI), which relies on structure-from-motion photogrammetry to create composite products, including 3-dimensional (3-D) environmental models, that are larger in spatial extent than the individual images used to create them. Use of LAI has become widespread in certain fields of marine science, primarily to measure the 3D structure of benthic ecosystems and track change over time. However, the use of LAI in the field of marine conservation appears limited. We conducted a review of the coral reef literature on the use of LAI to identify research themes and regional trends in applications of this technology. We also surveyed 135 coral reef scientists and conservation practitioners to determine community familiarity with LAI, evaluate barriers practitioners face in using LAI, and identify applications of LAI believed to be most exciting or relevant to coral conservation. Adoption of LAI was limited primarily to researchers at institutions based in advanced economies and was applied infrequently to conservation, although conservation practitioners and survey respondents from emerging economies indicated they expect to use LAI in the future. Our results revealed disconnect between current LAI research topics and conservation priorities identified by practitioners, highlighting the need for more diverse, conservation-relevant research using LAI. We provide recommendations for how early adopters of LAI (typically Global North scientists from well-resourced institutions) can facilitate access to this conservation technology. These recommendations include developing training resources, creating partnerships for data storage and analysis, publishing standard operating procedures for LAI workflows, standardizing methods, developing tools for efficient data extraction from LAI products, and conducting conservation-relevant research using LAI.

Foundation species are being restored into inherently variable landscapes with multiple, interspersed habitats. However, understanding of the influence of different neighbouring habitats on community assembly and the survival of restored species is limited, despite their significant potential to affect restoration outcomes. We tested how habitat‐setting (being next to seagrass, seagrass and mangroves, or unvegetated sediments) and predation (by meso‐ and/or large predators) influenced macroinvertebrate community assembly and the survival of juvenile Sydney rock oysters (Saccostrea glomerata) on experimental oyster reef units in the Port Hacking estuary, New South Wales, Australia. Each habitat‐setting produced a distinct macroinvertebrate community on experimental reefs, whereas predation had limited effects on community structure. Juvenile oysters were instead highly predated everywhere, and oyster predation was dominated by the large, transient fish Acanthropagrus australis. Our findings allow practitioners to predict and tailor the communities which establish on restored oyster reefs by strategically placing them next to different habitats. If sites have a high predation risk but require seeding for reefs to establish, then caging or complex substrates must be used to increase seeded oyster survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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During 20152016, record temperatures triggered a pan-tropical episode of coral bleaching, the third global-scale event since mass bleaching was first documented in the 1980s. Here we examine how and why the severity of recurrent major bleaching events has varied at multiple scales, using aerial and underwater surveys of Australian reefs combined with satellite-derived sea surface temperatures. The distinctive geographic footprints of recurrent bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998, 2002 and 2016 were determined by the spatial pattern of sea temperatures in each year. Water quality and fishing pressure had minimal effect on the unprecedented bleaching in 2016, suggesting that local protection of reefs affords little or no resistance to extreme heat. Similarly, past exposure to bleaching in 1998 and 2002 did not lessen the severity of bleaching in 2016. Consequently, immediate global action to curb future warming is essential to secure a future for coral reefs., Author(s): Terry P. Hughes (corresponding author) [1]; James T. Kerry [1]; Mariana lvarez-Noriega [1, 2]; Jorge G. lvarez-Romero [1]; Kristen D. Anderson [1]; Andrew H. Baird [1]; Russell C. Babcock [...]