Use of the video transect method for characterizing the Itacolomis reefs, Eastern Brazil

Abstract

The video-transect method consists of a field survey performed with a video-camera along a line of fixed length, with the registered images further analyzed using a computer. This method was successfully applied in Brazil for the first time in the coral reefs of Todos os Santos Bay. The main goal of this work was to define the minimum sampling effort needed to describe the coral community when the video-transect method was applied to a selected reef site, namely the Pedra do Silva Reef in the Itacolomis reef complex, inside the Corumbau Marine Extractive Reserve, in Southern Bahia. Each transect was analyzed throughout its length, in successive captured video frames. The findings revealed that six 20 m long transects with an analysis of twenty points per image (frame) was sufficient for sampling the broad taxonomic categories of hard corals and major reef benthos, and that the whole field operation could be performed during one dive per station.