Characterization of benthic habitats within St. Thomas East End Reserve (STEER), USVI

NCCOS' Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA) is working closely with a number of divisions in the USVI DPNR (e.g., Divisions of Fish and Wildlife and Coastal Zone Management), the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to develop the baseline characterization of chemical contamination, toxicity, and the marine resources in the St. Thomas East End Reserve (STEER) in St. Thomas, USVI. The STEER contains extensive mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs. Within the watershed, however, are a large active landfill, numerous marinas, various commercial/industrial activities, an EPA Superfund Site, resorts, and several residential areas served by individual septic systems.  This baseline assessment will provide managers with critical information needed to help preserve and restore habitats, including a number of nursery areas within the STEER that are important to commercial and recreational fisheries.  As part of the characterization, a field survey was conducted in June 2012 to conduct a biological assessment of fish communities and benthic habitats within the STEER and at select hardbottom locations adjacent to STEER.  The basis for this work was the nearshore benthic habitats maps (less than 100 ft depth) created by NOAA's Biogeography Program in 2001 and NOS' bathymetry models.  Using ArcView GIS software, the digitized habitat maps were stratified to select sampling stations.  Sites were randomly selected within strata to ensure coverage of the entire study region. The habitat stratification was divided into three major habitat types: hardbottom which includes reef, pavement, etc. inside STEER; softbottom which consists of sand and seagrass, and mangrove.  In addition, two harbottom areas outside STEER of interest to STEER's Core Team were included as a separate stratum.  Using standardized protocols of NOAA's Coral Reef Ecosystem Monitoring Project, the fish and benthic habitat survey was conducted by two scientific divers.  During each dive one diver quantified the species and size of fish within a 25 x 4 m transect while a second diver characterized the habitat and invertebrate community.

Tags: algae, algal cover, aquatic habitat, atlantic ocean, baseline studies, belt transect, benthic, benthic habitat, benthos analysis, biodiversity, biosphere, bleaching, boring, calcareous macroalgae, caribbean sea, census, coastal processes, coral cover, coral diseases, coral reef ecology, coral reefs, coralline algae, corals, country/territory, crustose coralline algae, damage assessment, description, doc/noaa/nos/nccos, earth science, encrusting, encrusting macroalgae, environmental monitoring, erect, fleshy macroalgae, habitats, hard coral cover, hard coral cover dead percentage, hard coral cover live percentage, in situ, in situ biological, leeward islands, macroinvertebrates, marine biology, marine invertebrates, marine plants, national centers for coastal ocean science, national ocean service, noaa, numeric data sets, ocean basin, oceans, octocoral cover, photographic, population density, quadrat monitoring, rapid assessment studies, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, rugosity, seagrass, sponges, st. thomas, st. thomas (18n064w0033), transect monitoring, turf algae, u. s. virgin islands, u.s. department of commerce, united states of america, us_carib, vegetation, virgin islands, visual, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce