title: Wide field-of-view fluorescence imaging of coral reefs.
abstract: Coral reefs globally are declining rapidly because of both local and global stressors. Improved monitoring tools are urgently needed to understand the changes that are occurring at appropriate temporal and spatial scales. Coral fluorescence imaging tools have the potential to improve both ecological and physiological assessments. Although fluorescence imaging is regularly used for laboratory studies of corals, it has not yet been used for large-scale in situ assessments. Current obstacles to effective underwater fluorescence surveying include limited field-of-view due to low camera sensitivity, the need for nighttime deployment because of ambient light contamination, and the need for custom multispectral narrow band imaging systems to separate the signal into meaningful fluorescence bands. Here we describe the Fluorescence Imaging System (FluorIS), based on a consumer camera modified for greatly increased sensitivity to chlorophyll-a fluorescence, and we show high spectral correlation between acquired images and in situ spectrometer measurements. This system greatly facilitates underwater wide field-of-view fluorophore surveying during both night and day, and potentially enables improvements in semi-automated segmentation of live corals in coral reef photographs and juvenile coral surveys.
authors.affiliation: The Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Tali
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Treibitz
authors.affiliation: Catlin Seaview Survey, Global Change Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, AUS 4072.
authors.forename: Benjamin P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Neal
authors.affiliation: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Kline
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Beijbom
authors.affiliation: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
authors.forename: Paul L D
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
authors.forename: B Greg
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kriegman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001331:Automation; D057894:Coral Reefs; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008027:Light; D010176:Panama; D011114:Polynesia; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*