Tracing the influence of land-use change on water quality and coral reefs using a Bayesian model.

ABSTRACT: Coastal ecosystems can be degraded by poor water quality. Tracing the causes of poor water quality back to land-use change is necessary to target catchment management for coastal zone management. However, existing models for tracing the sources of pollution require extensive data-sets which are not available for many of the world's coral reef regions that may have severe water quality issues. Here we develop a hierarchical Bayesian model that uses freely available satellite data to infer the connection between land-uses in catchments and water clarity in coastal oceans. We apply the model to estimate the influence of land-use change on water clarity in Fiji. We tested the model's predictions against underwater surveys, finding that predictions of poor water quality are consistent with obse

SUBMITTER: Brown CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5500483 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature