National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic Cover Derived from Analysis of Benthic Images Collected for Climate Stations across the Hawaiian Archipelago since 2013

The data described here result from benthic photo-quadrat surveys conducted along transects at climate stations and permanent sites identified by the Ocean and Climate Change team across the Hawaiian archipelago since 2013 . Benthic habitat imagery were quantitatively analyzed using Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe; Kohler and Gill, 2006) software from 2010-2014 and a web-based annotation tool called CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2016) from 2015 to present. In general, images are analyzed to produce three functional group levels of benthic cover: Tier 1 (e.g., hard coral, soft coral, macroalgae, turf algae, etc.), Tier 2 (e.g., Hard Coral = massive, branching, foliose, encrusting, etc.; Macroalgae = upright macroalgae, encrusting macroalgae, bluegreen macroalgae, and Halimeda, etc.), and Tier 3 (e.g., Hard Coral = Astreopora sp, Favia sp, Pocillopora, etc.; Macroalgae = Caulerpa sp, Dictyosphaeria sp, Padina sp, etc.).

Climate stations are 3-4 sites per island that were selected in a stratified random fashion to be roughly equally spaced around the island, along the 15 m contour, on hard bottom, and at least 1 km away from a river mouth or embayment. Once selected we assess multiple features of the coral reef environment including in-situ temperature (STR), seawater carbonate, net carbonate accretion (CAU), and bioerosion (BMU). In 2013 and 2016, cryptobiota diversity (ARMS) was also assessed.

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

The NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) details a long term approach to provide an ecosystem perspective via monitoring climate, fish, benthic, and socioeconomic variables in a consistent and integrated manner. The NCRMP is intended to coordinate various NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) biological, physical, and human dimensions activities into a cohesive NOAA-wide effort. Through the implementation of the NCRMP, NOAA will be able to clearly and concisely communicate results of national-scale monitoring to national, state, and territorial policy makers, resource managers, and the public on a periodic basis.

StRS and Climate cover data should be packaged to archive simultaneously.

The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) is a framework for conducting sustained observations of biological, climate, and socioeconomic indicators at 10 priority coral reefs across the U.S. and its territories. This integrated approach will consolidate monitoring of coral reefs under a uniform method in the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. NCRMP is funded by the CRCP and supported by NOAA Fisheries, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), and many other partners. The Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP), now know as the Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD), at NOAA Fisheries is leading biological monitoring in the U.S. Pacific Islands Region.

The biological component of NCRMP in the Pacific provides a triennial ecological characterization at a broad spatial scale of general reef condition for reef fishes, corals and benthic habitat (i.e., fish species composition/density/size, benthic cover, and coral density/size/condition). Each year, CREP [ESD] scientists work closely with CRCP and local partners to collect biological data on fish populations and coral reef communities from strategically selected sites during Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) missions. Innovative analysis techniques are then used to develop products that give fellow scientists, managers, decision makers and the public a better understanding of a region’s resources and how they are changing over time.

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.

Hawaiian Archipelago including the main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

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

ESD welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on research issues contributing to the scientific basis for better management of marine ecosystems. 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 Ecosystem Science 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 Ocean Acidification Program (OAP). 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 Fisheries Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) when using the data.

Example:

Ecosystem Sciences Division; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2021). National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic Percent Cover Derived from Analysis of Benthic Images Collected for Climate Stations across the Hawaiian Archipelago since 2013. NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/36146.

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PIFSC Oracle database view: MV_BIA_CNET_ANALYSIS_DATA (CoralNet) / MV_BIA_PERC_COVER_PHOTO_CLI_RW (CPCe)

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, CPCE or CoralNet assigns 10 random 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.

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

Survey transects were appropriately marked to allow direct, site-level temporal comparisons.

Complete; photoquads were taken at all sites surveyed. The data set derived from the annotated images is as good as the images themselves; poor images with low contrast, inappropriate white balance, or out of focus may have been discarded. Therefore, total annotations for some sites may have differing number of points between sites (300 annotations are expected per site if there were 30 photographs and 10 point analyzed per photograph). Although the analysis process is statistically robust to allow for differing n (points) between sites, users should be aware of this limitation.

Only shallow water (0 to 30 meter depth range) hard-bottom habitats are surveyed.

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

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 the users should be aware of this limitation.

Training modules and standard operating procedures have been developed and documented to ensure improved performance and consistent imagery analysis results produced by multiple analysts.

Quality control is enforced by means of point-to-point, inter-observer calibration exercises that are conducted before each image analysis production series.

The image analysis data is captured in two different locations: exported files from CPCe or CoralNet that reside on a file server, which are ingested into a table in the PIFSC Oracle database. Both the file server and PIFSC Oracle database are maintained and regularly backed up by PIFSC ITS.

Benthic photographs were collected during photoquadrat surveys conducted at permanent sites and climate stations in coral reef habitats by the PIFSC Ecosystem Sciences Division. The imagery was later analyzed using Coral Point Count with Excel Extentions (CPCe; 2014 and prior) or CoralNet (starting in 2015) to generate benthic community data.