Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Benthic communities on restored coral reefs confer equivalent aesthetic value to healthy reefs
AU - Alisa, Cut Aja Gita
AU - Razak, Tries B.
AU - Mouquet, Nicolas
AU - Graham, Nicholas A. J.
AU - Hemingson, Christopher R.
AU - Mouillot, David
AU - Subhan, Beginer
AU - Zamani, Neviaty P.
AU - Vida, Rindah Talitha
AU - Lamont, Timothy A. C.
PY - 2025/7/1
Y1 - 2025/7/1
N2 - Coral reefs are valuable ecosystems that provide diverse ecosystem services to people. For example, many reefs have exceptionally high tourism value, attracting visitors to experience their ecologically and visually rich reef habitat. However, human-induced degradation can alter ecosystem services, such as when damaged reefs lose their visual appeal. Coral restoration has become a common response to reef degradation, but restoration success is usually evaluated based on coral cover increases rather than ecosystem service recovery. Here, we quantify the aesthetic value of restored reefs at one of the world’s largest coral restoration projects, compared to nearby healthy and degraded reefs. Using deep learning models trained on people’s visual preferences, we estimated the aesthetic value of coral reef benthic photographs with high prediction accuracy (R2 = 0.95). Restored reefs exhibited aesthetic value that was statistically equivalent to healthy reefs and significantly higher than degraded reefs. High aesthetic value was primarily driven by colour diversity and live coral cover, which were both higher in healthy and restored reefs than degraded reefs. Taken together, these results demonstrate the recovery of aesthetic value towards a healthy state after large-scale restoration, indicating that coral restoration can support vital tourism services and well-being contributions to people.
AB - Coral reefs are valuable ecosystems that provide diverse ecosystem services to people. For example, many reefs have exceptionally high tourism value, attracting visitors to experience their ecologically and visually rich reef habitat. However, human-induced degradation can alter ecosystem services, such as when damaged reefs lose their visual appeal. Coral restoration has become a common response to reef degradation, but restoration success is usually evaluated based on coral cover increases rather than ecosystem service recovery. Here, we quantify the aesthetic value of restored reefs at one of the world’s largest coral restoration projects, compared to nearby healthy and degraded reefs. Using deep learning models trained on people’s visual preferences, we estimated the aesthetic value of coral reef benthic photographs with high prediction accuracy (R2 = 0.95). Restored reefs exhibited aesthetic value that was statistically equivalent to healthy reefs and significantly higher than degraded reefs. High aesthetic value was primarily driven by colour diversity and live coral cover, which were both higher in healthy and restored reefs than degraded reefs. Taken together, these results demonstrate the recovery of aesthetic value towards a healthy state after large-scale restoration, indicating that coral restoration can support vital tourism services and well-being contributions to people.
KW - Colours
KW - Restoration
KW - Deep learning
KW - Aesthetic value
KW - Coral reef
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-025-06373-3
DO - 10.1038/s41598-025-06373-3
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 40594259
VL - 15
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
IS - 1
M1 - 20790
ER -