National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic Cover Derived from Analysis of Benthic Images Collected during Stratified Random Surveys (StRS) across American Samoa in 2015, 2018, and 2023.

This data has been combined into a US Pacific-wide InPort record:  https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/77771. 

The data described here result from benthic photo-quadrat surveys conducted along transects at stratified random sites across the American Samoa in 2015, 2018, and 2023 as a part of Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) surveys for corals and fish. Benthic habitat imagery were quantitatively analyzed using the Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe; Kohler and Gill, 2006) software from 2010-2014 and using the web-based annotation tool CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2016) from 2015 to present. Images are analyzed to produce three functional group levels of benthic cover: Taxa identification occurs at three functional group levels of benthic cover. Tier 1 (e.g., coral, soft coral, macroalgae, turf algae, etc.), Tier 2 (e.g., Coral = massive hard coral, branching hard coral, foliose hard coral, encrusting hard coral, etc.; Macroalga = upright macroalgae), and Tier 3 (e.g., Coral = Astreopora sp, Favia sp, Pocillopora, etc.; Macroalgae = Caulerpa sp, Dictyosphaeria sp, Padina sp, etc.). If Tier 3 resolution is not possible, the next finest resolution is used.

A stratified random sampling (StRS) design was employed to survey the coral reef ecosystems across the region. 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, reef zone, and depth. Sampling effort was allocated based on strata area and sites were randomly located within strata. Sites were surveyed using photo-quadrats along transects to collect benthic imagery to ultimately produce estimates of relative abundance (benthic cover), frequency of occurrence, benthic community taxonomic composition and relative generic richness.

The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance through stratification using environmental covariates and by sampling more sites rather than sampling more transects at a site. Therefore, site-level estimates and site to site comparisons should be used with caution.

The data from the benthic cover surveys can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

Tags: 743, algae, algal cover, american samoa, american samoa (14s170w0000), amsm, aquatic habitat, baseline studies, belt transect, benthic, benthic biology, benthic communities, benthic habitat, benthos analysis, biosphere, blue-green algae, coastal processes, community dynamics, coral, coral communities, coral cover, coral point count, coral reef, coral reef conservation program, coral reef ecology, coral reef ecosystem division, coral reef ecosystem program, coral reef studies, coral reefs, coralnet, corals, country/territory, cred, crep, crustose coralline algae, derived products, doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc, doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc/esd, earth science, ecological dynamics, ecosystem sciences division, ecosystems, encrusting macroalgae, esd, hard coral cover, hard coral cover live percentage, in situ biological, machine-learning algorithm, macroinvertebrates, manu'a group, marine biology, marine ecosystems, marine invertebrates, marine plants, microbiota, mollusks, national coral reef monitoring program, national marine fisheries service, nmfs, noaa, numeric data sets, ocean basin, oceans, octocoral cover, ofu (14s169w0002), ofu island, ofu island (14s169w0013), olosega (14s169w0016), olosega island, olosega island (14s169w0014), pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific ocean, photograph, photograph analysis, photographic analysis, pifsc, point counts, quadrat monitoring, rainier, ramp, rapid assessment studies, reef, reef and/or bottom regime - percent cover, reef assessment and monitoring program, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, robot-assisted annotations, rose atoll (14s168w0001), rose atoll marine national monument, seagrass, south pacific ocean, sponges, swains atoll (11s171w0001), ta'u island (14s169w0012), transect monitoring, tridacna, turf algae, tutuila island (14s170w0016), u.s. department of commerce, united states of america, us doc, vegetation, visual estimate, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce