National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Assessment of coral reef benthic communities in the U.S. Virgin Islands from 2013-07-08 to 2013-07-19 and from 2015-06-08 to 2015-07-24

The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) assessed coral reef communities in St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) using two benthic surveys: the Benthic Assessment (BA) and the Coral Demographic method. Benthic Assessment provides benthic cover estimates for ecologically important cover types/groups (e.g., macroalgae, turf algae, crustose coralline algae, corals, sponges, sand/sediment, etc.) using a 1-stage stratified random survey design in hardbottom and coral reef habitats less than 30m in depth. The goals of these surveys are to provide: (1) a quantification of percent cover of biotic and abiotic benthic components using a line point-intercept (LPI) method; (2) information on topographic complexity substratum rugosity) of the survey locations (3) quantitative information on local commercially and ecologically-important macroinvertebrates (Caribbean spiny lobster [Panulirus argus], queen conch [Lobatus gigas], long-spined sea urchin [Diadema antillarum]); and (4) presence-absence information for ESA-listed Threatened corals. The goal of the coral demographic surveys is to collect and report information on species composition, density, size, abundance, and specific parameters of condition (% live vs. dead, bleaching, disease) of non-juvenile scleractinian corals (>4 cm maximum diameter), and of overall species diversity (all corals) using 10m x 1m belt transects in a stratified random sampling design in hardbottom and coral reef habitats less than 30m in depth. Both Benthic Assessment and Coral Demographic surveys are concurrent. Three datasets are provided under the Benthic Assessment and coral demographic protocols, and are distributed as one compiled package: (1) analysis ready benthic cover dataset, (2) analysis ready invertebrates/ESA dataset, and (3) analysis ready coral demographic dataset. The methodologies used for this survey can be found in the Benthic Assessment and Coral Demographic protocols. All datasets contain data fields on general station information (e.g., survey strata, depth, rugosity). Each of these data tables contain additional survey-specific data fields. For complete information and descriptions of attributes and data fields for all data tables, refer to the data dictionaries

Tags: 0151728, 0151730, 0224205, 2013, 2015, animals/vertebrates, aquatic habitat, atlantic ocean, benthic, benthic communities, benthic species, benthic species - taxa counts, benthos analysis, biological, biological classification, biological data, biosphere, caribbean sea, coastal landforms, coastal processes, coral, coral - bleaching, coral - census, coral - colony size, coral - species identification, coral bleaching, coral colony size and condition, coral reef, coral reef conservation program, coral reef conservation program (crcp), coral reef studies, coral reefs, corals, country/territory, description, doc/noaa/nesdis/ncei, doc/noaa/nmfs/sefsc, doc/noaa/nos/nccos, earth science, ecological and biological characterization, ecological dynamics, ecological/biological characterization, ecosystems, esa listed species, field observation, fish, geomorphic landforms/processes, habitat, habitat - benthic, habitat mapping, in situ, leeward islands, lesser antilles, linear transect (point), long-term monitoring, macroinvertebrate census, marine ecosystems, marine spatial ecology, monitoring, national centers for coastal ocean science, national centers for environmental information, national coral reef monitoring plan (ncrmp) implementation, national coral reef monitoring program (ncrmp), national coral reef monitoring program: assessment of coral reef benthic communities in the u.s. vir, national marine fisheries service, national ocean service, nccos research data types, nccos research locations, nccos research priorities, nccos research topics, nesdis, nmfs, noaa, north atlantic ocean, nos, numeric data sets, ocean, ocean basin, oceans, reef, reef and/or bottom regime - percent cover, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, regions, research data types, research priorities, research topics, solid earth, southeast fisheries science center, species richness, st. croix, st. croix (17n064w0003), st. john, st. john (18n064w0011), st. thomas, st. thomas (18n064w0033), survey - biological, survey - coral reef, survey - swimmer/diver, swimmer/diver, transect monitoring, u. s. virgin islands, u. s. virgin islands (17n064w0000), u.s. department of commerce, u.s. states and territories, u.s. virgin islands, united states of america, us doc, virgin islands, visual observation, visual observations, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce