Cryptobiota metabarcoding using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS) Deployed at Coral Reef Sites across PRIA from 2011 to 2015

The data described here includes cytochrome oxidase I (COI) DNA metabarcoding data collected from Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS). ARMS were deployed by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Ecosystem Sciences Division (formerly the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division) under the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) at stationary climate monitoring sites and used to assess and monitor cryptic reef diversity in the Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA). Developed in collaboration with the Census of Marine Life (CoML) Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems (CReefs), ARMS were designed to mimic the structural complexity of a reef and attract/collect colonizing marine invertebrates. The key innovation of the ARMS method is that biodiversity is sampled over precisely the same surface area in the exact same manner.

These data were gathered at specific reef sites across the PRIAs. ARMS units were set-up, deployed and recovered as described in the ARMS record in the related items section below. After ARMS were disassembled, different size fractions of samples and plate scrapings were preserved in ethanol for metabarcoding.

Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse, complex, and productive of ecosystems. The vast majority of coral reef biodiversity is made up of the small and cryptic organisms living unseen by most within the reef matrix. This hidden community, the cryptobiota, are a critical component of coral reef trophic dynamics and play an essential role in nutrient recycling that enable reefs to thrive in oligotrophic environments. Despite their ecological importance, the cryptobiota are often ignored because they live deep within the reef matrix and require significant taxonomic expertise and time to collect and identify. By leaving ARMS units on the benthos for over two-years to attract the colonization and establishment of the cryptobiota ARMS overcome extraction constraints and by integrating next-generation DNA sequencing into ARMS unit processing, taxonomic limitations are diminshed through the establishment of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU) - species proxies - based on DNA sequence similarities.

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 consolidates 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 Ecosystem Sciences Division at NOAA Fisheries is leading climate monitoring in the U.S. Pacific Islands Region. The climate component of NCRMP in the Pacific provides a comprehensive view of climate change impacts on coral reef ecosystems and helps identify areas of resilience and vulnerability. The key indicators used to identify and monitor climate-driven trends include 1) thermal stress caused by changes in sea temperature, 2) ocean acidification resulting from changes in carbonate chemistry, and 3) ecological impacts by collecting data on coral growth rates, erosion, and community structure to understand the impacts of thermal stress and ocean acidification on the ecosystem. Each year, ESD scientists work closely with CRCP and partners during Pacific RAMP missions to collect data using moored oceanographic (subsurface temperature recorders) and ecological (calcification accretion units [CAUs] and autonomous reef monitoring structures [ARMS]) instruments stationed at fixed sites in the Pacific Ocean, and water samples collected by divers. The in-situ data (along with satellite-based observations) are also used in modeling efforts. Innovative analysis techniques are 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.

NOAA IRC

These data are merged fasta files of the forward and reverse sequencing on a MiSeq platform and have been deposited into Genbank.

Fasta files for each successfully sequenced ARMS fraction that underwent COI DNA metabarcoding. The Sequence Read Archive (SRA) associated with Genbank stores sequences data from next-generation technologies. The SRA access numbers to these data are XXXX-XXXXX and can be access at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/

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.

Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA) including Baker, Howland, and Jarvis islands, Kingman Reef, and Johnston, Palmyra, and Wake atolls.

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NOAA Ecosystem Science Division (EDS) 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 Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and the National Science Foundation grant #OISE1243541. The analysis and interpretations presented here are solely that of the current authors.”

Data can be accessed online via Genbank.

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Please cite PIFSC Ecosystem Sciences Division when using the data.

Suggested citation:

Ecosystem Sciences Division, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, 2020: Cryptobiota metabarcoding using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS) Deployed at Coral Reef Sites across PRIA from 2011 to 2015, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/64267.

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Genbank SRA files:

Go to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/

DNA metabarcoding has inevitable PCR amplification and sequencing biases associated with using universal primers that amplify widely divergent taxa, and the variable rates of evolution within and among phyla that affect sequence clustering with a fixed divergence thresholds. Thus, some organisms may not be represented in the DNA metabarcoding data even though they were present on the plates. See https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/edn3.163 for more details.

Analytical results could be different depending on the bioinformatics used to process the raw sequencing data, however, the overall picture will most likely remain the same.

As stated in the Analytical Accuracy section, bias in the data may result in one's choice of tools to bioinformatically process sequencing data.

All ARMS units that are recovered are disassembled, photographed, and sorted by size. Genetic analysis of ARMS samples may exist for a subset of fractions and locations. Missing fractions/locations could be a result of: 1) ARMS that were not recovered due to logistical constraints of the mission; 2) ARMS that were not found when divers returned to the site; and 3) ARMS fractions that were unsuccessfully extracted, amplified, or sequenced.

ARMS sample biodiversity over precisely the same surface area in the exact same manner. Thus, the use of ARMS is a systematic, consistent, and comparable method for monitoring the cryptobiota community overtime. Three units are deployed at each site to allow for replicate measurements. Divers typically record ARMS metadata into the master Microsoft Access database within a few days of the field operations and/or ARMS processing. QA/QC procedures by the ARMS team and the Cruise Data Manager are typically completed during the field mission.

Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) are assembled, deployed, recovered, and processed as described in the ARMS record in the related items section below. The sessile organisms, the 100 um and 500 um motile fractions, as well as plate scrapings, undergo DNA metabarcoding using the COI gene as the amplicon marker.