Scientists Use NASA Satellite Data to Assess Belize Coral Reef Risk

April 7, 2023
by Larry Waight +

A team of scientists has utilized NASA satellite data to determine the vulnerability of Belize’s famous coral reefs to bleaching and collapse, a study that may help management authorities safeguard the reefs from human impacts such as development, overfishing, pollution, and climate change. The findings were published in an article on Phys.org, which can be found here.

Researchers analyzed two decades of NASA satellite measurements, which were stored in the cloud, and created a toolkit for assessing the clarity and surface temperature of coastal waters. This freely accessible data can be used to evaluate reefs globally.

Belize’s 185-mile-long (298-kilometer-long) barrier reef system, one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, hosts a diverse range of marine environments that support thousands of animal and plant species and bolster the Central American country’s largest industry, tourism.

Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and their counterparts in Belize used cloud-based data on Google Earth Engine to rank 24 marine protected areas off the Belize coast based on the risks coral face from murky water and rising temperatures. The study further outlines how this was done.

The researchers employed Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery, which has been collected from 2002 to 2022, to develop a vulnerability index that characterizes the risk to coral in the marine environments that Belize manages to protect biodiversity.

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The index revealed that Port Honduras Marine Reserve had the highest coral vulnerability score at 10 out of 12, while other areas of concern included Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary, Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve, and Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. These findings will inform the next Belize Coastal Zone Management Plan, currently being revised.

The vulnerability index can be used for other reef systems worldwide and could be adapted to incorporate additional water variables such as acidity, which poses a threat to coral health due to rising ocean acidity as a result of climate change.

The satellite data will become increasingly useful for monitoring areas that are less accessible or more expensive to reach through traditional field testing by boat. This development offers coastal management authorities more tools to protect vulnerable coral reefs, which are crucial to Belize’s cultural identity and tourism industry.