Assessing cryptic reef diversity of colonizing marine invertebrates using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) deployed at coral reef sites in Timor-Leste from 2012 to 2014

The data described here, including photographs, genetic sequences, and specimen information, were collected by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) from Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures, or ARMS, moored for two years at fixed climate survey sites located on hard bottom shallow water (< 15 m) habitats in Timor-Leste. Climate sites were established in Timor-Leste in October 2012 to establish ecological baselines for climate change by measuring multiple features of the coral reef environment (in addition to the data described herein) over time. 

Three ARMS units were typically deployed by SCUBA divers at each survey site. Each ARMS unit, constructed in-house by CREP, consisted of 23 cm x 23 cm gray, type 1 PVC plates stacked in alternating series of 4 open and 4 obstructed layers and attached to a base plate of 35 cm x 45 cm, which was affixed to the reef. Upon recovery, each ARMS unit was encapsulated, brought to the surface, and disassembled and processed. Disassembled plates were photographed to document recruited sessile organisms, scraped clean and preserved in 95% ethanol for DNA processing. Recruited motile organisms were sieved into 3 size fractions: 2 mm, 500 Âµm, and 100 Âµm. The 500 Âµm and 100 Âµm fractions were bulked and also preserved in 95% ethanol for DNA processing. The 2 mm fraction was sorted into morphospecies, photographed, and identified to the lowest taxonomic identification possible. The plate photographs, sequences generated from the DNA metabarcoding of the scrapings and the 500- and 100-Âµm fractions, specimen photographs, and specimen identifications are included in the ARMS dataset. The data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

ARMS are used by CREP to assess and monitor cryptic reef diversity across the Pacific.  Developed in collaboration with the Census of Marine Life (CoML) Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems (CReefs), ARMS are designed to mimic the structural complexity of a reef and attract/collect colonizing marine invertebrates. The key innovation of the ARMS method is that biodiversity is sampled over precisely the same surface area in the exact same manner. Thus, the use of ARMS is a systematic, consistent, and comparable method for monitoring the marine cryptobiota community over time.

Tags: 587, aquatic habitat, arms, atauro, autonomous reef monitoring structure, autonomous reef monitoring structure (arms), autonomous reef monitoring structures, baseline studies, baucau, benthic habitat, biodiversity, biological, biology, biosphere, bobonaro, brachyura, census, census of marine life, coastal processes, coral reef ecology, coral reef ecosystem division, coral reef ecosystem program, coral reef studies, coral reefs, coral triangle initiative, corals, country/territory, cred, creefs, crep, cryptobiota, democratic republic of timor-leste (east timor) (09s126e0001), dili, doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc, earth science, ecosystem sciences division, imagery, images, in situ biological, indian ocean, laboratory analysis, lautem, macroinvertebrates, manatuto, marine biology, marine invertebrates, national marine fisheries service, nmfs, noaa, numeric data sets, ocean basin, oceans, pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific reef assessment and monitoring program: monitoring coral reef ecosystems of the us pacific i, pifsc, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, species identification, species identification - count, timor leste, timor sea, timor-leste, u.s. department of commerce, united states agency for international development, us doc, usaid, vila mpa, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce