Authors
Melanie McField
Healthy Reefs for Healthy People
Ross Metusalem
JMP
Objective
Apply exploratory data analysis in the context of wildlife monitoring and nature conservation.
Background
The Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) is the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere, spanning nearly 700 miles along the coasts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. The MAR hosts a multitude of species of fish, coral, and other marine life, including numerous critically endangered species. Millions of people in the region rely on the reef for food and for their livelihoods; unfortunately, overfishing, pollution, and climate change have taken their toll on this important ecosystem and present a threat to the health of marine life and people alike.
The Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative (HRI; www.healthyreefs.org) is a multi-institutional effort dedicated to conserving the MAR by promoting the use of reef health indicators by policy makers and other leaders; analyzing and reporting scientific data to improve reef management; and fostering communication and networking among conservation partners. As part of this effort, HRI produces the Mesoamerican Reef Report Cards, identifying current trends in reef health and suggested actions for improving it. These data come from the open Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reefs Assessment database (www.agrra.org), which contains data on the biomass of various types of fish across the MAR, among other measures of reef health. Fish biomass represents the total mass of fish within a given area, with higher biomass values indicating that the reef is able to support a greater amount of fish life.
The Task
- Identify changes in fish biomass over time across different fish types and MAR subregions.
- Use summary statistics and exploratory graphs to find interesting trends and then investigate those trends to develop a clearer understanding of how fish biomass is changing in the MAR.