Niihau Benthic Habitats - Interactive Map Viewer

This project was a cooperative effort among the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment; the University of Hawaii; and Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLC. The goal of the work was to develop coral reef mapping methods and compare benthic habitat maps generated by photointerpreting georeferenced color aerial photography, hyperspectral and IKONOS satellite imagery. Twenty-seven distinct benthic habitat types within eleven zones were mapped directly into a GIS system using visual interpretation of orthorectified aerial photographs and hyperspectral imagery. Benthic features were mapped that covered an area of 790 km^2. In all, 204 km^2 of unconsolidated sediment, 171 km^2 of submerged vegetation, and 415 km^2 of coral reef and colonized hardbottom were mapped. The Biogeography program developed an ArcIMS browser to allow users to view maps of the Island of Niihau and perform basis queries of the data over the internet.

The National Ocean Service is conducting research to digitally map biotic resources and coordinate a long-term monitoring program that can detect and predict change in U.S. coral reefs, and their associated habitats and biological communities.

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A hierarchical classification scheme was created to define and delineate habitats. The classification scheme defines benthic communities on the basis of two attributes: large geographic "zones" which are composed of smaller "habitats". Zone refers only to benthic community location and habitat refers only to substrate and/or cover type. Every polygon on the benthic community map will be assigned a habitat within a zone (e.g. sand in the lagoon, or sand on the bank). Combinations of habitat and zone that are analogous to traditionally used terminology are noted where appropriate. Eleven mutually exclusive zones were identified from land to open water corresponding to typical insular shelf and coral reef geomorphology. These zones include: land, vertical wall, shoreline intertidal, lagoon, reef flat, back reef, reef crest, fore reef, bank/shelf, bank/shelf escarpment, channel, and dredged (since this condition eliminates natural geomorphology). Zone refers only to each benthic community's location and does not address substrate or cover types within. Twenty-seven distinct and non-overlapping habitat types were identified that could be mapped by visual interpretation of remotely collected imagery. Habitats or features that cover areas smaller than the MMU were not considered. For example, sand halos surrounding patch reefs are too small to be mapped independently. Habitat refers only to each benthic community's substrate and/or cover type and does not address location on the shelf. Habitats are defined in a collapsible hierarchy ranging from four broad classes (unconsolidated sediment, submerged vegetation, coral reef and hardbottom, and other), to more detailed categories (e.g., emergent vegetation, seagrass, algae, individual patch reefs, uncolonized volcanic rock), to patchiness of some specific features (e.g., 50-90 percent cover of macroalgae). Coyne, M. S., T. A. Battista, M. Anderson, J. Waddell, W. Smith, P. Jokiel, M. S. Kendall, and M. E. Monaco. 2003. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS CCMA 152 (On-line). Benthic Habitats of the Main Hawaiian Islands URL: http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/products/biogeography/hawaii_cd/htm/manual.pdf. Also available on U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Biogeography Program. 2003. (CD-ROM). Benthic Habitats of the Main Hawaiian Islands. Silver Spring, MD: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. URL: http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/products/biogeography/hawaii_cd/data/

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Center for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) produced this site. NCCOS Biogeography Program does not guarantee the accuracy of the geographic features or attributes. Please see the metadata record for each data set on the accompanying project CD-ROM for complete information of the source, limitations, and proper use.

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