AIMS Photo Transects - Yonge Reef Coral Communities From 1981 To 2007

Starting in the early 1980s, thirty-two permanent photographed sites were established by AIMS to learn about the dynamic behavior of coral communities in the full variety of reef-zones from sheltered nearshore reefs in turbid waters through to the slopes and surf zones of outer reefs, each of which has its own distinctive assemblage of corals. With allied field studies, it was established that in the last two decades of the 20th Century, GBR coral communities exhibited substantial resilience (in terms of restoration of prior percent cover and composition) following disturbances such as floods, crown-of-thorns starfish and cyclone-generated waves. There is presently little basis for setting resilience targets for coral reefs, especially in relation to the great variety of environmental settings and reef-types within the Great Barrier Reef. This project will help scientists provide a much stronger evidence base for the setting of targets and evaluating contemporaneous changes compared to more benign years of late last century.Eight photo-stations were established at Yonge Reef in 1981. This reef, visited during the historic 1928-29 Great Barrier Reef Expedition, is named after the expedition’s leader Sir Maurice Charles Yonge. https://www.jcu.edu.au/library/specials/yonge-collectionYonge Reef is a 7 km long ribbon reef east of Lizard Island. Its reef flat is exposed at extreme low tides, and its morphology is a product of prolific coral growth on its margins, intertidal flats and slopes. The photo-stations sample coral communities in reef flats and slopes on both eastern and western margins of the reef. The photo-stations were established at depths ranging from 2 to 39 metres. There are eight photo-stations, each comprising 3 – 4 overlapping rows of stereo-pairs, and each photographed up to 19 years between 1981 and 2007. Access to the sites was extremely weather and tide dependent, which accounts for differences among the sites in their frequency of visitation.