Benthic Surveys in Faga'alu, American Samoa: belt transect surveys of corals in March and August of 2012

The data described here were collected in Faga'alu, American Samoa in March and August 2012 via belt transect surveys of corals by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP). At a survey site, divers deployed two 25-m transects to gather information on the coral communities present there, including diversity and health status, and within each transect three 5-m segments were surveyed (beginning at 0m, 10m, and 20m). Within each segment, all coral colonies whose center fell within 0.5m of either side of the transect were identified to genus. Cases of disease and impaired health were also recorded and the type of affliction was documented.

These data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive. Additionally, LPI surveys were conducted in 2012, coral demographic surveys were conducted in 2013 and 2015, photoquadrat benthic images were collected in 2012 and 2015, and the 2015 images were analyzed for benthic cover composition (all documented and archived separately).

These data are part of a NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) funded project aimed at establishing baseline data for coral demographics and benthic cover and composition via Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) surveys conducted by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) at Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa between 2012 and 2015.

In August 2012 Faga’alu watershed in American Samoa was adopted by the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force Watershed Partnership Initiative as a priority site, with the objective to reduce inputs of land-based sources of pollution to nearby coastal areas and coral reefs within the watershed. As a result, the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) invested in 1) the collection of baseline data for corals in Faga’alu Bay (REA surveys conducted by NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program [CREP]), and 2) the monitoring of sediment loads in Faga’alu Stream to document pre- and post-mitigation levels of sedimentation in the stream and the receiving waters below.

Led by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, the overall goal of this capacity-building CRCP-funded project is to establish and eventually turn over the long-term monitoring to the local partners in the jurisdiction, thereby meeting the goals of the Watershed Partnership Initiative.

S. Holst Rice, A. Messina, T. Biggs, B. Vargas-Angel, and D. Whitall. 2016. Baseline Assessment of Faga'alu Watershed: A Ridge to Reef Assessment in Support of Sediment Reduction Activities and Future Evaluation of their Success. Silver Spring, MD: NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. NOAA Technical Memorandum CRCP 23. 44 pp. DOI: 10.7289/V5BK19C3

An Erosion and Sediment Control Plan was implemented at Samoa Maritime quarry to reduce excess sedimentation from quarry operations, and mitigation actions from the Plan took place in 2014 to install retention basins designed to stem the input of excess sediments into Faga’alu Stream below the quarry. REA surveys conducted by CREP in 2012 and 2013 serve as the pre-mitigation baseline, and surveys conducted in 2015 by CREP and later by the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources serve to document the downstream effects (e.g., changes to the coral community) in Faga’alu Bay from the mitigation efforts to reduce the sediment loads upstream.

Concurrent pre- and post-mitigation monitoring of turbidity and sediment load in Faga'alu is managed by San Diego State University via the CRCP-funded project titled, "Capacity Building for On-Island Impact Assessment of Sediment Load Reduction in Faga’alu Watershed, American Samoa". Long-term monitoring of the stream is transitioning to the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency.

A report entitled "Baseline surveys for coral community structure and demographics in Vatia Bay and Faga'alu Bay, American Samoa" was prepared by NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program for the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources.

The physical record for includes the following: region, island, site, date (day, month, year), latitude (decimal degrees), longitude (decimal degrees), transect, segment, segment length, segment width, minimum depth (feet), and maximum depth.

An individual coral colony record includes colony identification, typically to genus, and condition.

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.

Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa

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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). 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.

Example

Cite as: Vargas-Angel, Bernardo; Coral Reef Ecosystem Program; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2017). Benthic Surveys in Faga'alu, American Samoa: belt transect surveys of corals in 2012. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/25283

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PIFSC Oracle database view: v0_coral_obs_d

(date and location selection criteria required to subset the dataset)

Observations were made by experienced benthic survey personnel who have been trained, undergone a series of calibration surveys and coral taxon identification testing, and have met a set of minimum standards for colony assessment and taxon identification in the region.

Handheld GPS units were used to locate sites and mark site locations.

Only forereef, hard bottom habitats were surveyed. The survey sites were selected to be representative of the dominant habitats at this reef system. Efforts were made to include broad spatial coverage of the reef area.

With the exception of the non-quantitative survey along the backreef, the same methods of data collection were used at each of the sites surveyed at this location and were conducted by the same scientists.

The data is quality controlled against the physical data sheets following data entry. There are also several queries in the MS Access / Oracle database to flag errors based on pre-defined criteria.

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.

Belt transect surveys of corals (version d): belt transect survey with genus-level / disease observations