Benthic Surveys in Faga'alu, American Samoa since 2012: benthic images collected during belt transect surveys in 2012, 2015, 2020

The data described herein are part of a NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) funded project aimed establishing a baseline and assessing the status and trends for coral demographics and benthic cover and composition via Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) surveys conducted by the NOAA Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) -former Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP), at Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa in 2012, 2015, and 2020.

Photoquadrat benthic images were collected in 2012, 2015, and 2020 only, via belt transect surveys of coral demography according to protocols established by ESD in 2012 and by the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) in 2015.

In 2012 through 2015, the survey implemented a two-stage stratified random sampling (StRS) design to assess the Faga'alu benthic coral reef community, and a one-stage StRS design in 2020. 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 cardinal position (i.e., north and south), reef zone (i.e., backreef and forereef), and depth (i.e., shallow: >0–6 m and mid-depth: >6–18 m). Sampling effort allocation was determined based on strata area and sites randomly located within strata. The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance through stratification using environmental covariates and by sampling more sites rather than more transects per site. Therefore, site-to-site comparisons should proceed with caution.

Data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive, accession #0146682. The 2015 and 2020 photos have been analyzed for benthic cover (documented separately).

Data from coral demographic surveys in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2020, in addition benthic cover data from line-point intercept surveys in 2012 were also collected ESD and are documented separately.

These data are part of a NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) funded project aimed at establishing baseline and assessing status, and trends 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 2020.

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. The Samoa Maritime rock quarry was found to be a major contributor to the periodic flux of excessive sediments onto the adjacent reef in Faga‘alu. In September–December 2014, mitigation actions were implemented at the Samoa Maritime Quarry, including the installation of drainage systems, alternative ground cover, and retention ponds.

Data were collected to assess the effectiveness of management actions implemented to reduce land-based sources of pollution impacts originating from the Samoa Maritime rock quarry. Pre-intervention baseline images data were collected in 2012 and subsequent post-intervention monitoring in 2015 and 2020. Funding provided by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) through three internal projects entitled. 1) Comprehensive Baseline Assessment and Pilot Test of Outcome Performance Measures in Faga’alu Bay, American Samoa, awarded to Susie Holst. 2) Status and Trends Assessment for Land-based Sources of Pollution Impacts on Benthic Reef Communities in Faga’alu Bay and Vatia Bay, American Samoa, awarded to the NOAA Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD). And 3) Status and Trends Assessment for Land-based Sources of Pollution Impacts on Benthic Reef Communities in Faga’alu Bay and Vatia Bay, American Samoa, awarded to the NOAA Ecosystem Sciences Division..

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

Vargas-Angel B, Schumacher BD. 2018. Baseline surveys for coral reef community structure and demographics in Vatia Bay and Faga'alu Bay, American Samoa. Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, PIFSC Special Publication, SP-18-002, 38 p. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5/SP-PIFSC-18-002.

and

Vargas-Ángel B, Huntington B. 2020. Status and trends assessments for land-based sources of pollution impacts on benthic reef communities in Faga‘alu Bay, American Samoa. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-109, 38 p. doi:10.25923/0gvj-zm69.

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 ESD in 2012 and 2013 serve as the pre-mitigation baseline, and surveys conducted in 2015 and 2020 by ESD and the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources serve to document any post-intervention changes to the coral community in Faga'alu Bay stemming 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.

Raw data include 30 benthic photographs per survey site. Included in the archive package is a list of survey sites, including site id, location (latitude/longitude), and survey date, where photoquads were collected. The file naming convention for each photo/image is [SITE]_[YEAR]_[TRANSECT]_[PHOTO_NUMBER].JPG (for example: TUT-903_2012_A_01.JPG).

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

Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa

Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa

Not applicable

Not applicable

NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) Data Sharing Recommendations, version 9.0 updated August 12, 2015:

The ESD welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on research issues contributing to the scientific basis for better management of marine ecosystems. The ESD 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 ESD principal investigators.

2) In all presentations, product releases, or publications using data generated by ESD, proper acknowledgement of both ESD 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, ESD requests that you share relevant information on complimentary data collections.

4) Those receiving data are strongly urged to inform the ESD 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 Sciences Division (ESD), 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, with links provided in the Distribution Informatoin.

None

Please cite NOAA Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) when using the data.

Example

Cite as: Vargas-Angel, Bernardo; Ecosystem Sciences Division; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2020). Benthic Surveys in Faga'alu, American Samoa since 2012: benthic images collected during belt transect surveys in 2012, 2015, 2020. [Access Date]

None

None

PIFSC network/file system:

\\picmakai\optical\OPTICAL\AMSM\2012\TUT\REA\BENTHIC

T:\Cruise\CruiseData\MP1602\Optical\TUT\REA\BENTHIC

T:\Cruise\CruiseData\MP2006\Optical\TUT\REA\BENTHIC

Benthic Image collection was conducted by experienced benthic survey personnel who have been trained.

Handheld GPS units were used to mark site locations.

Not applicable.

Site GPS location and depth are appropriately collected to allow spatiotemporal comparisons.

Complete; photoquads were taken at all sites surveyed. On occasions instrument malfunction or sea conditions may preclude the collection of 30 benthic images per site.

Backreef and forereef, hard bottom habitats were surveyed.

Survey methods were consistent across all sites within the same year. Methods used in 2012 and 2015 are slightly different from the current standard protocol that was used in 2020.

Instrumentation and camera setting are updated periodically to improve image quality.

An optical validation QC procedure is employed to verify number of images, per site and file name. Also, image color correction is implemented to improve image quality.

Benthic images and the file structure are quality controlled by CREP personnel before they are migrated and integrated into CREP's master optical directory on the PIFSC network.

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.

Benthic photographs were collected during belt transect surveys of corals by the NOAA Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) following the same protocol in 2015 to that established by the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan (NCRMP), and by a slightly different protocol in 2012 established by CREP.