Data Management Plan (Deprecated)

The photographs described in this dataset were collected using a Structure from Motion (SfM) approach during in-water surveys throughout the U.S. Pacific since 2019. Surveys were funded by NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and conducted by the NOAA Fisheries, Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD). Survey sites consisted of sites previously established by collaborators from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and new sites established in 2019 by NOAA ESD. All sites ranged from 9-16 meters in depth and surveys covered approximately 100 m2 of reef habitat. Sites were photographed by divers swimming approximately 1 m off the seafloor with high overlap between images to produce SfM products. The data extracted from this imagery provides information on juvenile and adult taxonomic identification, abundance, planar area, and can be used to track the fate of individual coral colonies over time.

Imagery collected prior to 2019 can be accessed via the UC Library 100 Island Challenge Collection (https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/collection/bb1610330b).

Methods used to collect & process raw imagery are detailed here: https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/22753

This metadata record also provides links to available SfM imagery collected at fixed sites established to assess bleaching impact and recovery in the Main Hawaiian Islands from 2019 - 2021, including the combined effort of DAR, Scripps, and the ESD. In 2019, Lana'i, O'ahu, and Hawai'i were visited by the ESD; In 2020 O'ahu was revisited by the ESD. In 2021, Hawai'i imagery was collected by DAR, and O'ahu imagery was collected by the ESD. In 2021 Lana'i imagery was collected by SIO and used a slightly different method of using 'tiles' rather than 'markers' in the imagery and will therefore be accessible separately via Google Cloud bucket.

Lineage Statement:
Fixed site SfM surveys have been conducted by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center's Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) since 2019 and Scripps Institution of Oceanography since 2013.

Process Steps:

• Fixed sites used by NOAA ESD for SfM surveys have been established in a site-dependent manner using multiple types of physical marking configurations. In this dataset, fixed sites were either established using physical markers already existing within NCRMP climate stations or were established by collaborators at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. To set up the survey area, at least two Ground Control Points (GCPs) of known length with Agisoft patterns at both ends are placed 2-3 meters away from the center of the survey area opposite of each other and rebar caps with Agisoft patterns affixed to the top are placed on top of the stainless-steel rods (rebar caps not used in every survey). Using a datasheet, a rough sketch of the survey area, including the location and marker number of each GCP and rebar cap, the depth of each GCP, and the latitude and longitude of the center of the survey area are recorded prior to beginning each survey. As one diver completed the datasheet, the other diver color balanced a Nikon SL2 or SL3 DSLR digital camera in an Ikelite underwater housing using a 18% gray card. (Citation: Rodriguez C, Amir C, Gray A, Asbury M, Suka R, Lamirand M, Couch CS, Oliver T. 2021. Measuring Coral Vital Rates Using Structure-from-Motion Photogrammetry at Fixed Sites: Standard Operating Procedures and Error Estimates. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-120, https://doi.org/10.25923/a9se-k649)
• Imagery was collected in a circular or crosshatch pattern at a slow, sustainable speed 1 meter off the bottom of the reef while continuously capturing jpg images to achieve 60-80% image overlap. Divers collected imager approximately 2 m past the 10 m diameter of the plot and conducted two full passes of the survey site to further improve image overlap and ensure the site was fully surveyed. (Citation: Rodriguez C, Amir C, Gray A, Asbury M, Suka R, Lamirand M, Couch CS, Oliver T. 2021. Measuring Coral Vital Rates Using Structure-from-Motion Photogrammetry at Fixed Sites: Standard Operating Procedures and Error Estimates. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-120, https://doi.org/10.25923/a9se-k649)
• Images for each site were evaluated to remove extraneous or erroneous photographs (e.g. fins, blue water, excessive blur, etc.). Sites with imagery that was not white balanced, were consistently overexposed or excessively dark were color corrected using Adobe Lightroom. Image adjustments were batch run per site for consistent correction. Image data includes ~3500 benthic photographs per survey site. Included in the archive package is a list of survey sites, including region, island, site, date (day, month, year), latitude (dd), longitude (dd), depth marker numbers with corresponding depth values, marker length for scaling models, camera model and lens focal length, if the images for a site were color or exposure corrected and a unique image name. The file naming convention for each image is NCRMP_SFM_FIXED_YEAR_MissionID_REGION_ISLAND_SITENAME_IMG_####.jpg. (Citation: Suka R, Asbury M, Couch C, Gray A, Winston M, Oliver T. 2019. Processing Photomosaic Imagery of Coral Reefs Using Structure-from-Motion Standard Operating Procedures. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-93, 54 p. doi:10.25923/h2q8-jv47)

Each image set was evaluated for image quality. Images deemed unsatisfactory were removed from the image set. To ensure consistency, images were color corrected using Adobe Lightroom if it appeared that the camera they were taken from was not properly white balanced in the field or imagery from a site was consistently too dark.

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

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.