Knowledge of aquatic biodiversity remains far behind that of terrestrial life because the aquatic world has long been inaccessible and even now is still much more difficult to explore. Initiatives like REEF and iNaturalist have mobilized the dive community to contribute sightings of fish and other animals linked to geographic location.
I contribute to iNaturalist but created AquaNotes as a vehicle to document my personal sightings and record everything I learn about fishes. A key goal is to link sightings to habitat and ecology, something that is missing from other fish biodiversity sites. Knowing how fishes interact with their environment is fascinating and critical for conservation measures such as creating Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
AquaNotes is based on 'aquatic notes', which represent the sighting of one or more species. Currently, each note corresponds to a photograph taken at a known location, time, depth, and water temperature. Time and location also allow solar and lunar positions to be derived. Photographs are annotated with species names and biodiversity data is automatically extracted and presented as illustrated checklists. Further processing generates histograms of depth and temperature distributions, and other information about the species. This information is shown as a separate tab on the species details pages of AquaNotes.
In the future other sources of information will be converted into 'aquatic notes'. For instance, well-illustrated sightings on iNaturalist and scientific publicationscan be used to more fully document the geographic distribution of species. Original scientific descriptions are a special case, as they formally link a species to its name and features.
I believe that to preserve biodiversity we should protect habitats, not just species. And we should not just protect the 'pretty reefs' but the full diversity of habitats because each has its own intrinsic value. Moreover, many species depend on different habitats as they age. We know surprisingly little about the habitat needs of many species, especially those that are not of commercial value.
A main goal for AquaNotes is therefore to document habitat use across different life stages of fishes, with a special focus on crypto-benthic species that tend to be overlooked. The problem, and possibly the reason that habitat use is so poorly documented, is that collecting and recording habitat information is time-consuming and complex. Moreover, we do not even have a thorough understanding of the factors that influence habitat selection. At the moment AquaNotes just collects depth and temperature, but the concept of 'aquatic notes' is suitable to collect much more detailed information such as:
The challenge is to find out what parameters to capture and how to describe them. I plan to adapt a subset of the 'Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard' (CMECS) for this purpose. The idea is to describe distinct habitats on house reefs and then visit them on repetitive dives to record fish biodiversity in each one. Automatic data harvesting then compiles the desired habitat preferences for species.
I will be surveying every year for about 5 months in the September to April period. The main focus area is "the East Indies", extending in the north from the Andaman Sea (west coast of Thailand) to the Philippines, and in the south along Sumatra, Java, and the Lesser Sunda Islands to West Papua.
Only the first destination has been booked. For the final 3 months I am looking at Andaman Island and the Strait of Malacca, but final decisions depend on finding dive centers and accommodation that fit my budget and are interested to let me survey their house reef and nearby dive sites.
Created by: Bart Hazes Email: get in touch Last update: 2024-06-14
