Previous steps

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Context

The GCRMN Implementation and Governance Plan provides the basis for data required for reporting on the Status and Trends for coral reefs and how this should be reflected in field monitoring. Although setting standards for different data tiers (or detail) and data quality, there is still a variety of field methods that can be utilised. These methods vary to some degree across regions, data contributors and institutions and can reflect a number of factors such as the type of reef formations present in the region, logistics, capability and capacity of data collectors and, in some cases, legacy factors.

For some regions of the GCRMN, there are existing monitoring manuals, which provide detail on methods for data collection and sampling design:

For the purposes of this training course, the data and training exercises are based on information gathered from a standardised methodology, like those utilised by the GCRMN.

Application of field monitoring standards

Despite having a monitoring manual, standards and dedicated field staff for data collection, there are still likely to be variations in how information is collected and notated in the field. This can depend on field conditions (e.g. strong currents, cold water, visibility) as well as characteristics of the reef (e.g. taxa identification, functional groups) that contribute to how data are collected and/or annotated.

Because of this, the Application of standards is important prior to the data collection process (where field staff have a good understanding of what information should be collected and why) and post monitoring, where the information collected needs to be interpreted or coalesced into a standard form for analysis.

In this, having a clear set of standards can be useful for making decisions in the field while annotating on a diving slate or underwater paper as well as interpreting information from the field into categories or numerical ranges.

Next Steps

To help with this process, in the next section we will explore some commonly used approaches for data entry.