We develop a multi-metric coral reef biocriteria monitoring framework for Singapore to enable a timely and proper protection of this precious ecosystem and enhance local coral reef management practices.
Taking action before it is too late has one major prerequisite: you need to notice the danger in time to act. Early detection of environmental damage is key to enable proper and timely protection measures.
For coral reefs, such early detection mechanisms are rarely in place. However, especially in Singapore’s rapidly changing coastal landscape, we need effective tools to assess changes in coral reef communities in response to environmental stressors, many of which are anthropogenic in origin. Current approaches only provide a descriptive post-mortem account of such changes. Sub-lethal changes, which are the points where management action can play a pivotal role in halting or reversing the decline, are usually not detected. 
We’ve just kicked off a project that addresses this gap in Singapore’s coral reef management landscape. We will develop a multi-metric coral reef biocriteria monitoring framework to assess responses of coral reefs to various environmental stressors. The project is funded by NParks (the Singapore National Parks Board) and the framework can later be used as their primary guideline for implementing regulatory and compliance monitoring programmes.
We will identify effective coral bioindicators to qualify and quantify links between water quality and coral reef condition. These indicators should include sub-lethal assessments of coral health (for example with the help of photophysiological responses, lipid content, zooxanthellae density, chlorophyll a concentration and DNA/RNA ratios). In an integrated approach, we will examine response patterns and processes from individual to ecosystem level. This multi-metric assessment will allow detecting changes over a broad range of stressors and gives a more complete picture of the biological condition of a reef than single biological indicators.
In the United States and Australia, coral reef indicators have already been identified and the accordant guidelines prepared. Outside these countries, however, limited progress has been made to develop country-specific coral reef monitoring protocols. As not all of the mentioned bioindicators are relevant or feasible in all countries, it is important to screen them and identify the most suitable and locally relevant ones. With our project, Singapore will be the first country outside of the US and Australia to develop a country-specific programme. After setting up the monitoring framework, we will moreover field test our survey protocols and finally prepare a guidance document and framework on multi-metric coral reef biocriteria monitoring for Singapore.