Pacific Reef Monitoring and Assessment Program: Line-Point-Intercept (LPI) Surveys for Benthic Cover at Coral Reef Sites across the Pacific Ocean from 2005 to 2012

A REA survey is a collection of inter-disciplinary protocols for gathering data pertaining to ecologically relevant biological components of a reef habitat over small spatial scales. A key facet of a REA survey includes specialists in different disciplines, including Fish, Coral, Algae, and Invertebrates. The REA surveys are conducted along a set of transect lines that are laid out by the first team to enter the water (i.e. the fish team). In this way, all of the biotic observations are referenced with regard to the same spatial coordinates, producing a more integrated biological description of a reef community than would any single, specialized survey.

At each REA survey site, the Line-Point-Intercept methodology is implemented to quantitatively document the benthic cover along two consecutively placed, 25 m line transects (with a 5 m inter-transect distance). The LPI diver determines the benthic composition at pre-determined intervals along the transect line. During the initial years of RAMP (2005-2008) LPI surveys were conducted at 50-cm intervals for a total of 50 data points per transect; subsequently (2010–2012) LPI surveys were conducted at 20-cm intervals for a total of 125 data points per transect.

All living benthic elements (e.g., coral, algae, and other sessile invertebrates) are identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible, often substituting functional group categories for turf algae and crustose coralline algae when identification in the field is extremely difficult. Raw survey data consist of counts of benthic elements, including but not limited to live coral, dead coral, carbonate pavement, sand, coral rubble, fleshy macroalgae, crustose coralline algae, turfalgae, as well as other sessile invertebrates along the two transects. The data allows for the assessment and monitoring of community structure and composition, and provide the basis for computing quantitative estimates of percent benthic cover at higher taxonomic levels like functional group (live coral, macroalgae, turf algae) or on a finer taxonomic resolution such as genus level.

The Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (Pacific RAMP), established by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) and supported by NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), is tasked with documenting and understanding the status and trends of coral reef ecosystems in the U.S. Pacific. Pacific RAMP involves interdisciplinary monitoring of oceanographic conditions and biological surveys of organisms associated with hard-bottomed habitats in the 0 - 30 m depth range. Regions are surveyed on a biennial cycle and aims to support integrated, consistent and comparable monitoring of coral reefs across all U.S.-affiliated regions.

Raw survey data includes metadata for each survey (where, when, who, area); site characteristics (depth, reef type, habitat); individual observations are identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible.

While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.

American Samoa

Hawaiian Archipelago

Mariana Archipelago

Pacific Remote Island Areas

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NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) Data Sharing Recommendations, version 9.0 updated August 12, 2015:

CREP welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on research issues contributing to the scientific basis for better management of marine ecosystems. CREP has a very diverse set of field activities that generates large volumes of data using an array of data collection protocols.

The following recommendations are for your consideration as you use this data:

1) Data analyses should take all field exigencies into account. The most effective way to do this would be active collaboration with CREP principal investigators.

2) In all presentations, product releases, or publications using data generated by CREP, proper acknowledgement of both CREP and the individuals responsible for data collection is expected. Citing the DOI (if available) is preferred, a non-DOI example is listed below.

3) If you collect or generate data for the same study areas, CREP requests that you share relevant information on complimentary data collections.

4) Those receiving data are strongly urged to inform the CREP Data Management Team of any errors and discrepancies that are discovered during the course of using these data. They are further urged to bring to the attention of the Team all problems and difficulties encountered in using these data. This information is necessary in order to improve the collections and to facilitate more efficient and economical data processing and retrieval. The users are asked to supply copies of any missing data that may be located, and to provide information as to significant subsets and special aggregations of data that are developed in using the material provided.

Example citation:

"This publication makes use of data products provided by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with funding support from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). The analysis and interpretations presented here are solely that of the current authors.”

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

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Please cite NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) when using the data.

Suggested citation:

Coral Reef Ecosystem Program; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2016). Pacific Reef Monitoring and Assessment Program: Line-Point-Intercept (LPI) Surveys for Benthic Cover at Coral Reef Sites across the Pacific Ocean from 2005 to 2012. NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/25261.

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PIFSC Oracle database view: V0_BENT_LPI

The benthic cover parameter observations were made by a single diver who is a benthic ecologist. The benthic cover assessment surveys are conducted one time per site per survey year; it is not replicated.

Between 2005 and 2007, the benthic elements at each LPI point were pooled by genus/functional group category. As such, this data set does not retain the original sequential order in which the LPI point were surveyed in the field. Subsequently, between 2008 and 2012, each LPI data point was entered separately and given a count of 1, preserving the original sequence in which the LPI points were surveyed in the field.

It is also important to note the latitude and longitude were not captured for HOW-20 surveyed on 2/7/2008.

The survey sites were selected to be representative of the dominant habitats at this reef system.

The same methods of data collection were used at each of the sites surveyed at this location, and were conducted by the same scientist.

Observations are periodically checked during expeditions for consistency. Data entry is usually conducted on the same day as the surveys using a data entry interface with several data controls employed, and are quality controlled by the observer. Following a mission, the data is then run through rigorous quality control checks by the data management team before the data are migrated to the Oracle database. Given the size of the data set, there remains some possibility of typographical or other errors.

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.