Assessing cryptic reef diversity of colonizing marine invertebrates using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) deployed at coral reef sites in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea from 2009 to 2012

Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) are used by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (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 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.

The data described here were collected by CREP from ARMS units moored at fixed climate survey sites located in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea.  Climate sites were established by CREP to assess multiple features of the coral reef environment (in addition to the data described herein) from September 2009 to September 2012, and three ARMS units were deployed by SCUBA divers at each survey site.  The data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

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 and 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. This dataset includes information on the species counted and identified in the 2 mm fraction.

Tags: 1221, 587, aquatic habitat, arms, australian institute of marine sciences, autonomous reef monitoring structure (arms), autonomous reef monitoring structures, baseline studies, benthic habitat, biodiversity, biology, biosphere, bismarck sea, brachyura, c204 pacific reef assessment and monitoring program (pacific ramp): biennial monitoring for the us p, census, coastal processes, coral reef conservation program, coral reef ecology, coral reef ecosystem division, coral reef ecosystem program, coral reef studies, coral reefs, coral triangle initiative, corals, country/territory, cred, crep, cryptobiota, doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc, earth science, ecosystem sciences division, equatorial pacific, hi'ialakai, in situ biological, international programs, invertebrate species, james cook university, kimbe bay, kimbe bay (05s151e0000), macroinvertebrates, marine biology, marine invertebrates, national marine fisheries service, new guinea, nmfs, noaa, numeric data sets, ocean basin, oceans, pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific ocean, pacific reef assessment and monitoring program: monitoring coral reef ecosystems of the us pacific i, papua new guinea, pifsc, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, small boat, south pacific ocean, species identification, species identification - count, survey - biological, the nature conservancy, u.s. department of commerce, united states agency for international development, us doc, usaid, visual estimate, visual observation, walindi plantation resort, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce