National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Stratified Random Surveys (StRS) of Coral Demography (Adult and Juvenile Corals) across the Mariana Archipelago since 2014

NCRMP CORAL DEMOGRAPHIC DATA HAS NOW BEEN MERGED INTO A PACIFIC-WIDE METADATA RECORD -- PLEASE REFER TO https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/71550 FOR MOST UPDATED DATA.

The data described here result from benthic coral demographic surveys for two life stages (juveniles, adults) across the Mariana archipelago since 2014.  Juvenile colony surveys include morphology and size.  Adult colony surveys record morphology, colony size, partial mortality in two categories - old dead and recent dead, cause of recent dead partial mortality,  and non-lesion forming condition including bleaching and disease). In 2023 some segment observations were repeated for internal quality control; to filter for non-repeated data, be certain filter for TRANSECTNUM = 1. 

A two-stage 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 in all regions, as well as habitat structure type in the Mariana Archipelago.  Sampling effort was allocated based on strata area and sites were randomly located within strata.  Sites were surveyed using belt transects to collect juvenile and adult coral colony metrics.  These data provide information on juvenile and adult coral abundance (density, proportion occurrence, and  total colony abundance), size distribution, partial mortality, prevalence and abundance of recent mortality and cause, prevalence of disease and bleaching, and diversity.

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.

The data from the coral demographic surveys can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

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Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce