National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Structure from motion (SfM) benthic images collected at Stratified Random Sites (StRS) across the US Pacific from 2019

The data described here are Structure from Motion (SfM) benthic habitat imagery from benthic transect surveys conducted at stratified random sites by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD)--formerly the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division--as part of the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). The SfM surveys replicates the visual  Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) survey methodology for corals conducted during ESD-led NCRMP missions across the Pacific Ocean beginning in 2019.

A stratified random sampling (StRS) design was employed to survey the coral reef ecosystems across the U.S. Pacific Regions (Hawaiian Archipelago, Mariana Archipelago, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas). 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, sub-island sector, reef zone, and depth in all regions, as well as habitat structure type in the Main Hawaiian Islands. Allocation of sampling effort was proportional to strata area and variance in coral density. The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance by sampling more sites with larger hardbottom area and variance. Therefore, site-level analyses should be employed with caution.

Sites were imaged using underwater cameras along 3x20m (3x13m for sites deeper than 18m) transects to extract data for two coral life stages (juveniles, adults) across the U.S. Pacific Island areas beginning in 2019. Adult colony surveys record taxon (genus or species), 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. These data are used to calculate density, size distributions, average partial mortality and prevalence and mean severity of coral health conditions. Juvenile colony surveys include taxon (genus or species), morphology and size, and are used to calculate juvenile density and size distributions by taxon.

Tags: aguihan, aguihan island (aguijan) (14n145e0006), aguihan island reefs, american samoa, american samoa (14s170w0000), aquatic habitat, asuncion island, asuncion island (19n145e0001), baker island, baker island (00n176w0001), bathymetry/seafloor topography, benthic biology, benthic habitat, benthos analysis, biosphere, camera, central pacific ocean, cnmi, coastal processes, coastal waters of hawaii, commonwealth of the northern marianas islands, coral, coral communities, coral reef conservation program, coral reef ecology, coral reef ecosystem division, coral reef ecosystem program, coral reef studies, coral reefs, corals, country/territory, cred, crep, doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc, earth science, ecosystem sciences division, equatorial pacific ocean, esd, french frigate shoals (24n166w0001), guam, guam (13n144e0000), habitats, hard seafloor substrate, hawaii, hawaii (21n160w0000), hawaii island, hawaii island (19n155w0003), hawaiian islands, hawaiian islands (21n157w0027), honolulu, howland island, howland island (00s176w0001, howland island (00s176w0001), images, in situ, jarvis island (00s160w0001), johnston atoll, johnston atoll (16n169w0001), kahoolawe island, kahoolawe island (20n156w0001), kalawao, kauai, kauai island, kauai island (22n159w0001), kingman reef (06n162w0001), kure atoll (28n178w0001), lanai island, lanai island (20n156w0002), line islands, lisianski island (25n173w0001), main hawaiian islands, manu'a group, mariana archipelago, marianas, marianas trench marine national monument, marine biology, maug, maug island, maug island (20n145e0001), maui, maui island, maui island (20n156w0004), mhi, molokai island, molokai island (21n157w0001), national coral reef monitoring program, national marine fisheries service, ncrmp, niihau island, niihau island (21n160w0001), nmfs, noaa, north pacific ocean, northern mariana islands, northern mariana islands ( cnmi ) (18n146e0000), northwest pacific, northwestern hawaiian islands, northwestern hawaiian islands (28n178w0000), nwhi, oahu (21n157w0003), oahu island, ocean basin, oceans, ofu island (14s169w0013), olosega island (14s169w0014), oscar elton sette, pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific ocean, pacific remote island areas, pacific remote islands marine national monument, pagan, pagan island, pagan island (18n145e0001), palmyra atoll (05n162w0001), papahanaumokuakea marine national monument, pearl and hermes reef (27n176w0001), photographic analysis, pifsc, pmnm, pria, primnm, rainier, rapid assessment studies, rapid ecological assessment, rea, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, rose atoll (14s168w0001), rose atoll marine national monument, rota, rota island, rota island ( luta ) (14n145e0007), saipan, saipan island, saipan island (15n145e0002), sarigan island, sarigan island (16n145e0003), sfm, south pacific ocean, structure from motion, swains atoll (11s171w0001), ta'u island (14s169w0012), tinian, tinian island (14n145e0005), tinian island reefs, transect monitoring, triennial, tutuila island (14s170w0016), u.s. department of commerce, united states of america, us doc, usa minor outlying islands, visual images, wake atoll, wake atoll (19n167e0001), western pacific ocean, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce