Evaluating and quantifying the associations between structural complexity and ecological functions of coral reefs at Laehala, Hilo

Project PI: Sofia Ferreira

Project Advisor: Dr. John Burns

My project involves the 3D reconstruction of the coral reef habitat at Laehala, Hilo. I am surveying the reef and using structure-from-motion photogrammetry techniques to create 3D models from 2D images taken in the field. Resulting models will be imported into the geospatial software ArcGIS in order to accurately quantify structural complexity metrics. Both the resulting quantified metrics and ecological data collected in the field will be analyzed to determine essential connections between the reef's structural complexity and ecological processes.

Project completed