National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic cover derived from analysis of images collected from climate stations across the Mariana Archipelago

The benthic cover data in this collection result from the analysis of images produced during benthic photo-quadrat surveys conducted along transects at climate stations and permanent sites across the Mariana Archipelago. These sites were identified by the Ocean and Climate Change team and the ongoing National Coral Reef Monitoring Program. Benthic habitat imagery were quantitatively analyzed using Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe; Kohler and Gill, 2006) software from 2010-2014 and a web-based annotation tool called CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2015) from 2015 to present. 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.). The imagery analyzed in order to produce the benthic cover data is also included in this collection.

Tags: 743, 7fwywa, 9dyj61, algae, algal cover, aquatic habitat, asuncion island, asuncion island (19n145e0001), baseline studies, belt transect, benthic, benthic biology, benthic habitat, benthos analysis, biosphere, blue-green algae, c215ax, climate change, cnmi, coastal processes, commonwealth of the northern mariana islands, coral, coral communities, coral cover, coral reef ecology, coral reef ecosystem division, coral reef ecosystem program, coral reefs, corals, country/territory, cred, crep, crustose coralline algae, earth science, ecosystem sciences division, encrusting macroalgae, esd, farallon de pajaros, farallon de pajaros (20n144e0001), guam, guam (13n144e0000), habitats, hard coral cover, hard coral cover live percentage, in situ biological, linear transect (point), macroinvertebrates, mariana archipelago, marianas, marine biology, marine invertebrates, marine plants, maug, maug island, maug island (20n145e0001), microbiota, mollusks, national coral reef monitoring program (ncrmp), northern mariana islands, northern mariana islands ( cnmi ) (18n146e0000), numeric data sets, ocean basin, ocean chemistry, oceanography, oceans, octocoral cover, pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific ocean, pagan, pagan island, pagan island (18n145e0001), photograph analysis, photographic analysis, pifsc, quadrat monitoring, ramp, rapid assessment studies, reef asessment and monitoring program, reef assessment and monitoring program, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, rhrmtg, rota, rota island, rota island ( luta ) (14n145e0007), saipan, saipan island, saipan island (15n145e0002), seagrass, sponges, tinian, tinian island (14n145e0005), tinian island reefs, transect monitoring, tridacna, triennial, turf algae, united states of america, uy4hrj, vegetation, visual images, western pacific ocean, y86e3k, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce