From Remotely Sensed Data to Ecological Intelligence: New Insights in Coral Reef Recovery Detected through Remote Sensing in a Warming Climate

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding the vulnerability, recovery, and adaptation potential of coral reefs to the impacts of climate change is essential to inform their management and conservation. Novel close-range remote sensing technologies, such as underwater large-area mapping, are now operational and widely available to researchers and managers alike. Yet, tools to translate such remote sensing data into ecological insights are rarely available.

Remote sensing technologies, such as photogrammetry and neural radiance fields, enable the mapping and monitoring of coral reefs at unprecedented spatial extents and resolutions. Substantial progress and guidelines have been made around the data collection of these remote sensing technologies, yet data processing, extraction, and analyses from remote sensing outputs are not straightforward and are rarely standardized. In coral reef ecology, this hurdle is further exacerbated by the gap in knowledge between remote sensors and computer scientists and ecologists.

This Special Issue will bridge this gap by publishing the following:

• Thoroughly tested guidelines and protocols needed to advance the application of remote sensing to ‘user ready’ ecological data;
• Case studies and data sets that generate novel insights in coral reef vulnerability, recovery, and/or adaptation to climate change impacts detected through remote sensing;
• Papers on the development of tools (hardware and/or software) and guidelines to enable non-experts to adopt novel remote sensing technologies into the routine mapping and monitoring of coral reefs.

This research topic focuses on the use of high-resolution (mm-cm) technologies to generate 3D reconstructions of underwater ecosystems, such as close-range photogrammetry. This includes any imaging platform, such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), diver-held cameras, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). We welcome submissions across multiple spatial extents, from coral colonies to reef-scapes, including research articles, reviews, technical notes, and communications. Priority will be given to advances in data processing, extraction, and analyses, as well as documented methodologies that are reproducible, to ensure user-ready data are derived from these technologies.

Dr. Renata Ferrari
Dr. Sophie Gordon
Dr. Kang Han
Dr. Erica Nocerino
Dr. Gaia Pavoni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.