National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic Cover Derived from Analysis of Benthic Images Collected for Climate Stations across the Hawaiian Archipelago since 2013

This data has been combined into a US Pacific-wide InPort record:  https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/78600.

The data described here result from benthic photo-quadrat surveys conducted along transects at climate stations and permanent sites identified by the Ocean and Climate Change team across the Hawaiian archipelago since 2013 . Benthic habitat imagery were quantitatively analyzed using Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe; Kohler and Gill, 2006) software from 2010-2014 and a web-based annotation tool called CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2016) from 2015 to present. In general, images are analyzed to produce three functional group levels of benthic cover: Tier 1 (e.g., hard coral, soft coral, macroalgae, turf algae, etc.), Tier 2 (e.g., Hard Coral = massive, branching, foliose, encrusting, etc.; Macroalgae = upright macroalgae, encrusting macroalgae, bluegreen macroalgae, and Halimeda, etc.), and Tier 3 (e.g., Hard Coral = Astreopora sp, Favia sp, Pocillopora, etc.; Macroalgae = Caulerpa sp, Dictyosphaeria sp, Padina sp, etc.).

Climate stations are 3-4 sites per island that were selected in a stratified random fashion to be roughly equally spaced around the island, along the 15 m contour, on hard bottom, and at least 1 km away from a river mouth or embayment. Once selected we assess multiple features of the coral reef environment including in-situ temperature (STR), seawater carbonate, net carbonate accretion (CAU), and bioerosion (BMU). In 2013 and  2016, cryptobiota diversity (ARMS) was also assessed.

These data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

Tags: 743, algae, algal cover, aquatic habitat, baseline studies, belt transect, benthic, benthic biology, benthic habitat, benthos analysis, biosphere, blue-green algae, central pacific ocean, coastal processes, coral, coral communities, coral cover, 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, crustose coralline algae, doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc, earth science, ecosystem sciences division, encrusting macroalgae, esd, french frigate shoals (24n166w0001), hard coral cover, hard coral cover live percentage, hawaii, hawaii (21n160w0000), hawaii island, hawaii island (19n155w0003), hawaiian archipelago, hawaiian islands, hawaiian islands (21n157w0027), hi'ialakai, honolulu, in situ biological, kauai, kauai island, kauai island (22n159w0001), kure atoll (28n178w0001), laboratory analyses, lanai island, lanai island (20n156w0002), lisianski island (25n173w0001), macroinvertebrates, main hawaiian islands, marine biology, marine invertebrates, marine plants, maui, maui island, maui island (20n156w0004), mhi, microbiota, mollusks, molokai island, molokai island (21n157w0001), national coral reef monitoring program, national marine fisheries service, niihau island, niihau island (21n160w0001), nmfs, noaa, north pacific ocean, northwestern hawaiian islands, northwestern hawaiian islands (28n178w0000), numeric data sets, nwhi, oahu (21n157w0003), oahu island, ocean basin, oceans, octocoral cover, oscar elton sette, pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific ocean, papahanaumokuakea marine national monument, pearl and hermes reef (27n176w0001), photograph analysis, photographic analysis, pifsc, point counts, quadrat monitoring, rainier, rapid assessment studies, reef and/or bottom regime - percent cover, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, seagrass, sponges, transect monitoring, tridacna, turf algae, u.s. department of commerce, united states of america, us doc, vegetation, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce