PIFSC CRED Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC) Metadata Catalog

The Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center produces a series of geographic information system (GIS) based maps that can be viewed together to provide information about the benthic habitat. The maps consist of a series of primary layers of directly mapped or measured data, including high-resolution bathymetric grids, acoustic backscatter imagery grids, geo-registered optical transects. Secondary layers will be derived from analyses of the primary data and will include metrics such as seabed texture (e.g., Local Fourier Histogram analysis), Topographic (or Bathymetric) Position Analysis, and geological interpretations of the video data and photographs. All these data layers can be viewed together in a single GIS project enabling the user to combine and query different layers to delineate regions of distinct benthic habitats for different species. Collectively the data layers and GIS framework constitute a flexible new kind of benthic habitat map.

The Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center is tasked with the delineation of the benthic habitat of coral reef ecosystems throughout the U.S. Pacific Islands, including the Hawaiian and Mariana archipelagos, American Samoa and the remote, U.S.-affiliated islands. Other groups have developed shallow-water benthic habitat maps using satellite-based techniques that are best suited for shallow-water habitats in less than 20 meters of water. PIBHMC uses acoustic and optical techniques to extend those shallow-water maps into deeper waters where satellite and diver-based techniques are not feasible.

Accurate, high-resolution habitat maps are essential for effective management of coral reefs. Products created by PIBHMC provide resource managers with comprehensive habitat maps on which to base decisions about Pacific coral reef ecosystems.