Coral reef ecosystem marine protected area monitoring in Fagamalo, American Samoa: benthic percent cover derived from analysis of benthic images collected during belt transect s...

In 2010 the village of Fagamalo, Tutuila, American Samoa, designated a no-take Marine Protected Area that sees the protection of 2.25 square kilometers of ocean. Because little is known regarding the status of living marine communities in the area, and at the request of the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources, NOAA scientists conducted surveys to assess the status of the benthic communities and establish a baseline against which to compare temporal change.

The benthic cover data described here were generated from the quantitative analysis of photoquadrat benthic images using image analysis software, whereby random points are projected on each image and the benthic elements falling directly underneath each point are identified. The images were collected at 18 randomly selected stratified sites in Fagamalo in 2015 during belt transect surveys of coral demography by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP).

The benthic cover data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive. The benthic images and coral demography data are described and archived separately.

These data were generated from benthic surveys to establish a comprehensive baseline for benthic composition and coral demographics, and are part of a NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) funded project, entitled: "Coral reef ecosystem monitoring training and capacity building to support improved resource management in American Samoa."

Lozada-Misa P, Schumacher BD, Vargas-Angel B. 2017. Analysis of benthic survey images via CoralNet : a summary of standard operating procedures and guidelines. Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, PIFSC Administrative Report, H-17-02, 169 p. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5/AR-PIFSC-H-17-02.

An informal report was prepared by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) and submitted to the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) in 2017. The report includes the data for Fagamalo described here, as well as data collected in April 2016 by the NOAA CREP fish team.

"Summary Report of Baseline Surveys for Benthic and Fish Communities in the Fagamalo No-Take Marine Protected Area, American Samoa"

https://data.nodc.noaa.gov/coris/library/NOAA/CRCP/NMFS/PIFSC/Projects/1083/Fagamalo_summary_CREP.pdf

Raw survey data includes metadata for each survey; site characteristics; unique image name and individual point observations identified at three functional group levels of benthic cover: Tier 1 (e.g., hard coral, macroalgae, etc.), Tier 2 (e.g., massive, branching, foliose, encrusting, etc.), and Tier 3 (e.g., Astreopora sp, Favia sp, etc.).

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.

Fagamalo, 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). Coral reef ecosystem marine protected area monitoring in Fagamalo, American Samoa: benthic percent cover derived from analysis of benthic images collected during belt transect surveys of coral demography in 2015. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/31621

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PIFSC Oracle database view: MV_BIA_CNET_ANALYSIS_DATA

SELECT *

FROM MV_BIA_CNET_ANALYSIS_DATA

WHERE OBS_YEAR = 2015

AND SITE IN (SELECT SITE FROM LIST_OF_SITES WHERE COMMENT_ = 'FAGAMALO')

Data sets derived from image analysis are highly reliable within the stipulated taxonomic context. Each time a production run is performed for a region a calibration exercise is conducted by all staff that will participate in that round of image analysis classification. Usually 100-150 photos are selected from the photos being processed as part of the production run series, or other region-relevant photo streams. Then, image analysis software assigns 10 random fixed points per photo. Each photo analyst is asked to classify the same set of points in each of the photos used as part of the calibration exercise. The goal of the calibration exercise is to assess inter-observer variability. Inter-observer variability rates are available upon request for each production run.

The data set derived from the image analysis is as good as the images themselves; poor images with low contrast, inappropriate white balance, or out of focus may have to be discarded. Therefore, percent cover estimates for some sites may derive from differing number of points between sites. Although the analysis process is statistically robust to allow for differing n (points) between sites, users should be aware of this limitation.

Classification is completed to the functional group/genus level (Tier 3).

The same method of image analysis was used at each surveyed site.

Quality control is enforced by means of point-to-point, inter-observer calibration exercises that are conducted before each image analysis production series. Training modules and standard operating procedures have also been developed and documented to ensure improved performance and consistent imagery analysis results produced by multiple analysts.

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.

The methodology to analyze benthic imagery using CoralNet to derive benthic cover values.