Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program: Towed-diver Surveys of Benthic Habitat, Key Benthic Species, including Marine Debris Sightings, of the U.S. Pacific Reefs from 20...

The towed-diver method is used to conduct benthic surveys, assessing large-scale disturbances (e.g., bleaching) and quantifying benthic components such as habitat complexity/type and the general distribution and abundance patterns of live coral, CCA, macroalgae, and macroinvertebrates. Surveys are conducted in the Hawaiian and Mariana Archipelagos, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas as part of the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). A suitable method for assessing relatively large areas of reef habitat, the method involves towing a pair of SCUBA divers—one benthic and one fish—behind a small boat for approximately 50 min following the ~15-m depth contour and covering about 2–3 km of habitat. Each diver is equipped with a towboard and attempts to maintain a constant elevation above the surface of the reef (~1 m) for the duration of the survey. A complete towed-diver survey is divided into 10, 5-min segments, with visual observations recorded by 5-min segment.

The visual estimate data provided in this dataset were collected during towed-diver surveys which includes percentage cover of total live hard corals, stressed hard corals, soft corals, sand, coralline algae, and macroalgae, and the number of individual macroinvertebrates (crown of thorns starfish (COTS), sea urchins, and giant clams). Benthic habitat complexity and type data are also collected as part of the survey with the following habitat type categories: continuous reef, spur and groove, patch reefs, rock boulders, pavement, rubble flat, sand flats, pinnacle, and wall.

The data were collected at coral reefs across all U.S.-affiliated regions as part of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) led missions since 2000. These data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

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, length, duration, depth, reef type, temperature); and benthic observations.

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.

Mariana Archipelago

Hawaiian Archipelago including the main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

American Samoa

Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA)

Not applicable

Not applicable

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.

Suggested citation:

Coral Reef Ecosystem Program; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2016). Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program: Towed-diver Surveys of Benthic Habitat, Key Benthic Species, including Marine Debris Sightings, of the U.S. Pacific Reefs from 2000 to 2012. NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/35618.

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PIFSC Oracle database view: VS_BENT_TDS

The latitude and longitude coordinates of the survey track are recorded using a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver on-board the tow boat. The survey track is georeferenced and a layback model is applied (python script in ESRI ArcGIS for Desktop) that more accurately maps the positions of the recorded observations.

Observations during each tow were made by trained divers. The visual variation throughout the tow may change drastically as well as current and surface conditions for the support vessel impacting the preferred depth contour and accompanying track lines.

The different benthic elements and macroinvertebrate taxa are recorded as percentage cover. Note that the total percentage cover will not add up to 100%, as all possible benthic categories are not included.

From 2000 to 2004, benthic cover estimates are recorded to the nearest percentage and macroinvertebrate estimates are individual counts.

In 2004 (BIN_A), benthic cover and macroinvertebrate categories and the corresponding percentage range bins are as follows:

Category 1: 0 %

Category 2: 0 - 1 %

Category 3: 1 - 5 %

Category 4: 5 - 10 %

Category 5: 10 - 25 %

Category 6: 25 - 50 %

Category 7: 50 - 75 %

Category 8: 75 - 100 %

From 2004 to 2012 (BIN_B), benthic cover and macroinvertebrate categories and the corresponding percentage range bins are as follows:

Category 1: 0.1 - 1 %

Category 2: 1.1 - 5 %

Category 3: 5.1 - 10 %

Category 4: 10.1 - 20 %

Category 5: 20.1 - 30 %

Category 6: 30.1 - 40 %

Category 7: 40.1 - 50 %

Category 8: 50.1 – 62.5 %

Category 9: 62.5 – 75 %

Category 10: 75.1 – 100 %

The following is a summary of the changes in benthic cover and macroinvertebrate categories, respectively:

2000 (Perc_a) – live hard coral, dead coral, algae, sand, hard bottom/rock ; lobster, COTs, urchins

2001 (Perc_b) - live hard coral, dead coral, rubble, carbonate pavement, algae (coralline and fleshy), sand (fine, medium, coarse), hard bottom/rock (cobble, boulder, basalt pavement); lobster, COTs, urchins (boring, free), Holothurian, Asteroid

2002 (Perc_d) - hard coral (live, dead, rubble, carbonate pavement), algae (coralline and fleshy), sand (fine, medium, coarse), hard bottom/rock (cobble, boulder, basalt pavement); lobster, COTs, urchins (boring, free), Holothurian, giant clams

2002 (Perc_c) – hard coral (live, stressed, bleached, dead, rubble, carbonate pavement), algae (coralline and fleshy), sand (fine, medium, coarse), hard bottom/rock (cobble, boulder, basalt pavement); lobster/octopus, COTs, urchins (boring, free), sea cucumbers, pearl oyster

2003 to 2004 (Perc_c) - hard coral (normal, pale, white, recently dead), pavement (covered with: bare, fleshy algae, calcareous algae), rubble (covered with: bare, fleshy algae, calcareous algae), sand (fine: bare or with fleshy algae, medium: bare or with fleshy algae, coarse: bare or with fleshy algae), hard bottom/rock (covered with: bare, fleshy algae, calcareous algae); lobster/octopus, COTs, urchins (boring, free), sea cucumbers, pearl oyster, giant clams

2004 (BIN_A) - hard coral (live, stressed, dead), macroalgae, coralline algae; lobster/octopus, COTs, urchins (boring, free), sea cucumbers

2005 to 2012 (BIN_B) - hard coral (live, stressed/bleached), soft coral, sand, rubble, macroalgae, coralline algae; COTs, urchins, sea cucumbers, giant clams

Habitat complexity data is based on a six-point subjective assessment of topographical diversity and complexity of the benthic habitat. Classified according to 1 of 6 categories: low (L), medium-low (ML), medium (M), medium-high (MH), high (H), and very high (VH). Habitat type is recorded as dominant, abundant, common, occasional, rare (DACOR) from 2001 to 2002 and from 2003 to 2012 only the dominant habitat type is recorded.

The following is a summary of the changes in habitat categories:

2000 – not recorded

2001 - spur and groove, flats, patch reef, linear/reticulate reef, pinnacle, canyon, channel or pass, cave, hole or pool, artificial structure

2002 - spur and groove, patch reef, linear/aggregate reef, scattered coral in sand

2003 to 2012 - continuous reef, spur and groove, patch reef, pavement, sand flat, rubble flat, bedrock, rock boulders

The towed-diver surveys are completed in forereef, backreef, and lagoon habitats. Considering that the towed-divers are covering ~200 m during each 5-min time frame of a 50-minute survey, benthic coverage calculations are broad estimates. These data can be used to see large differences but can not be process to a fine scale.

The same methods of data collection are used during each tow. Regular examination and comparisons of the data are conducted throughout each mission to check for diver bias or other discrepancies.

The data is entered in an MS Access database, then quality controlled against the physical data sheets prior to the data considered final. There are also several queries in the MS Access and Oracle databases to flag any errors based on pre-defined criteria.

The data is captured in several locations: physical data sheets, MS Access cruise database, and PIFSC Oracle database. The physical data sheets are housed at PIFSC. The MS Access cruise database is regularly backed up by the cruise data manager while at sea. The PIFSC Oracle database is regularly backed up by PIFSC ITS.

The data is captured on physical data sheets by each diver, then transferred to a MS Access database on the ship. At the conclusion of the cruise, the data is migrated to the PIFSC Oracle database, where there are several database views used to analyze the data.