Benthic Cover Derived from Benthic Images Collected Across the Hawaiian Archipelago from 2019-08-27 to 2019-11-14 During a Bleaching Event (NCEI Accession 0259266)

The data described here result from benthic photo-quadrat surveys conducted along transects at stratified random sites (StRS) and fixed sites surveyed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) and the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) during bleaching event in 2019. This benthic cover dataset follows a typical benthic image analysis, but includes options for bleaching in imagery annotations. Benthic habitat imagery was quantitatively analyzed using the web-based annotation tool CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2016) with the addition of codes for bleaching of hard coral. In general, images are analyzed to produce three functional group levels of benthic cover: Tier 1 (e.g., hard coral, soft coral, macroalgae, turf algae, etc.), Tier 2 (e.g., Hard Coral = massive, branching, foliose, encrusting, etc.; Macroalgae = upright macroalgae, encrusting macroalgae, bluegreen macroalgae, and Halimeda, etc.), and Tier 3 (e.g., Hard Coral = Astreopora sp, Favia sp, Pocillopora, etc.; Macroalgae = Caulerpa sp, Dictyosphaeria sp, Padina sp, etc.). For each category of hard coral, a bleached and non-bleached option existed during analysis to facilitate the collection of coral bleaching percent cover data.

In the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) and some sites in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), a StRS design was employed to select random sites. The survey domain encompassed the majority of the mapped area of reef and hard bottom habitats in the 0-30 m depth range. The stratification scheme included island, reef zone, and depth in all regions, as well as habitat structure type in the Main Hawaiian Islands. Sampling effort was allocated based on strata area and sites were randomly located within strata. Sites were surveyed using photo-quadrats along transects to collect benthic imagery to ultimately produce estimates of relative abundance (percent cover), frequency of occurrence, benthic community taxonomic composition and relative generic richness.

The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance through stratification using environmental covariates and by sampling more sites rather than sampling more transects at a site. Therefore, site-level estimates and site to site comparisons should be used with caution.

Surveys conducted in the Main Hawaiian Islands were conducted during shore-based missions and were all StRS, whereas surveys in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were performed opportunistically during the regularly scheduled NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) mission and encompassed StRS as well as fixed sites, which include climate stations and permanent sites

Tags: 31283, algae, algal cover, aquatic habitat, belt transect, benthic, benthic biology, benthic habitat, benthos analysis, biosphere, bleaching, blue-green algae, central pacific ocean, coastal processes, coral, coral communities, coral cover, coral diseases, coral reef conservation program (crcp), coral reef ecology, coral reef ecosystem division, coral reef ecosystem program, coral reefs, coralnet, corals, country/territory, cred, crep, crustose coralline algae, earth science, ecosystem sciences division, encrusting macroalgae, esd, french frigate shoals (24n166w0001), hard coral cover, hard coral cover live percentage, hawai'i coral bleaching assessment and analysis, hawaii, hawaii (21n160w0000), hawaii island, hawaii island (19n155w0003), hawaiian islands, hawaiian islands (21n157w0027), honolulu, in situ biological, kure atoll (28n178w0001), lanai island, lanai island (20n156w0002), linear transect (point), lisianski island (25n173w0001), macroinvertebrates, marine biology, marine invertebrates, marine plants, maui, maui island, maui island (20n156w0004), microbiota, mollusks, n4cde7, national coral reef monitoring program (ncrmp), northwestern hawaiian islands, northwestern hawaiian islands (28n178w0000), numeric data sets, oahu (21n157w0003), oahu island, ocean basin, oceanography, oceans, octocoral cover, pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific ocean, pacific reef and assessment monitoring program (pacific ramp - noaa/nmfs/cred), papahanaumokuakea marine national monument, pearl and hermes reef (27n176w0001), photograph analysis, photographic analysis, pifsc, quadrat monitoring, rapid assessment studies, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, seagrass, sponges, transect monitoring, tridacna, turf algae, united states of america, vegetation, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce