Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program: Belt Transect Surveys of Corals at U.S. Pacific Reefs in 2008 (even size-class bins)

The coral demographic data described here result from belt transect surveys conducted by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD)---formerly the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division---from January 27 to April 27, 2008 at coral reef sites in American Samoa and the Pacific Remote Island Areas as part of NOAA's Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (Pacific RAMP), with funding from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP). 

Surveys were conducted at fixed sites at depths ranging from 3-21 m. Sites were surveyed using belt transects to collect coral colony metrics. At each site, the surveyor listed and identified to the genus or species level, all coral colonies occurring within 0.5 sq. meters of each side of two, 25-m transect lines; and recorded the visually estimated size class to which the maximum diameter of each colony belonged (0-5 cm; 6-10 cm; 11-20 cm; 21-30 cm; etc. Size-class bins continue through 300 cm in 10-cm increments). These coral demographic data provide information on coral abundance (density, proportion occurrence, and total colony abundance), size distribution, and taxonomic richness.

Tags: 1221, american samoa, american samoa (14s170w0000), aquatic habitat, baker island, baker island (00n176w0001), belt transect, benthos analysis, biology, biosphere, c204 pacific reef assessment and monitoring program (pacific ramp): biennial monitoring for the us p, central pacific ocean, coastal processes, coral, coral - census, coral - colony size, coral - species identification, coral communities, coral reef conservation program, coral reef ecosystem division, coral reef ecosystem program, coral reef studies, coral reefs, corals, country/territory, cred, crep, doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc, earth science, ecological dynamics, ecosystem monitoring and assessment, ecosystem sciences division, equatorial pacific ocean, esd, hi'ialakai, howland island, howland island (00s176w0001), in situ, in situ biological, jarvis island (00s160w0001), johnston atoll, johnston atoll (16n169w0001), kingman reef (06n162w0001), line islands, manu'a group, manu'a islands (14s170w0038), marine biology, national marine fisheries service, nmfs, noaa, numeric data sets, ocean basin, oceans, ofu island (14s169w0013), olosega island (14s169w0014), pacific islands fisheries science center, pacific ocean, pacific reef and assessment monitoring program, pacific remote island areas, pacific remote islands marine national monument, palmyra atoll (05n162w0001), pifsc, pria, ramp, rapid assessment studies, rapid ecological assessment, rea, reef assessment and monitoring program, reef habitat, reef monitoring and assessment, rose atoll (14s168w0001), rose atoll marine national monument, south pacific ocean, species richness, survey - biological, survey - swimmer/diver, swains atoll (11s171w0001), ta'u island (14s169w0012), transect monitoring, tutuila island (14s170w0016), u.s. department of commerce, united states of america, us doc, usa minor outlying islands, zoology
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce