title: Quantification of reef benthos communities and variability inherent to the monitoring using video transect method.
abstract: Long-term monitoring program of organisms is the most recommended for understanding changing processes on reefs. The video transect method presents advantages for that. Specialists state that it is important to make sure that the recorded coverage is always the same between campaigns, so that differences in results may be entirely attributed to environmental changes. This study aimed to test the capability of implementing this requirement through tracking simulation and its validity for monitoring the benthic communities of reefs using the video transect method. Ten transects 20 m long were established in Todos os Santos Bay coral reefs. Subsequent to the first transect capture, a second diver repeated the same track, simulating two different monitoring campaigns. Data were transformed and a matrix of similarity was generated using Bray-Curtis' Index. ANOSIM analysis was performed to test the similarity of the ten transects and its repetitions. The result, R = 0.08 (P = 0.928), shows that reef monitoring using video transect, the way it is described in the literature, is appropriate, but it is important to consider some premises discussed in this work.
authors.affiliation: Curso de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Biomonitoramento, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Av. Ademar de Barros, Campus de Ondina, Salvador, Bahia, 40170-290, Brazil. ramos.carla@gmail.com
authors.forename: Carla Alecrim Colaço
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Fernanda Duarte
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Amaral
authors.forename: Ruy Kenji Papa
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: de Kikuchi
authors.forename: Eduardo Marocci
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Chaves
authors.forename: Gabriel Rivas
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: de Melo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa; D001938:Brazil; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D014743:Videotape Recording