National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic cover derived from analysis of images collected during stratified random surveys (StRS) across the Pacific Remote Island Areas

The benthic cover data in this collection result from the analysis of images produced by benthic photo-quadrat surveys. These surveys were conducted along transects at stratified random sites across the Pacific Remote Island Areas since 2014 as a part of the ongoing National Coral Reef Monitoring Program's (NCRMP) Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) surveys for corals and fish. Benthic cover data and the associated images are both included in this collection.

A stratified random sampling (StRS) design was employed to survey the coral reef ecosystems throughout the U.S. Pacific regions. 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. 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.

Benthic habitat imagery were quantitatively analyzed using Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe; Kohler and Gill, 2006) software in 2014 and a web-based annotation tool called CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2015) thereafter. In general, images were 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.).

Tags: 743, 75hnek, 86hjcn, 9mrcea, algae, algal cover, aquatic habitat, baker island, baker island (00n176w0001), baseline studies, belt transect, benthic, benthic biology, benthic habitat, benthos analysis, biosphere, blue-green algae, bnxuwk, cd03ml, central pacific ocean, climate change, coastal processes, coral, coral communities, coral cover, coral reef ecology, coral reef ecosystem division, coral reef ecosystem program, coral reefs, coralnet, corals, country/territory, cred, crep, crustose coralline algae, de3cuj, earth science, ecosystem sciences division, encrusting macroalgae, esd, fcmt29, g155ty, habitats, hard coral cover, hard coral cover live percentage, howland island, howland island (00s176w0001), in situ biological, jarvis island (00s160w0001), johnston atoll, johnston atoll (16n169w0001), kingman reef (06n162w0001), line islands, linear transect (point), machine-learning algorithm, macroinvertebrates, marine biology, marine invertebrates, marine plants, microbiota, mollusks, national coral reef monitoring program, national coral reef monitoring program (ncrmp), numeric data sets, ocean basin, ocean chemistry, oceanography, oceans, octocoral cover, p02xtc, pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific ocean, pacific remote island areas, pacific remote islands marine national monument, palmyra atoll (05n162w0001), photograph analysis, photographic analysis, pifsc, pria, primnm, quadrat monitoring, ramp, rapid assessment studies, rapid ecological assessment, rea, reef assessment and monitoring program, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, rhyft8, robot-assisted annotations, seagrass, sponges, stratified random surveys, strs, transect monitoring, tridacna, triennial, turf algae, united states of america, usa minor outlying islands, vegetation, visual images, w9g0df, wake atoll, wake atoll (19n167e0001), wrx2nh, yaxauc, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce