Eco-spatial data layers of coral reef ecosystem drivers in American Samoa

Understanding the spatial distribution, intensity, overlap, and cumulative impact of human activities and environmental stressors is essential for effective management and protection of ecosystem services generated by coral reefs. The data described here are that of the GIS layers of the eco-geospatial tool developed by staff of the Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) at the Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) for American Samoa Coral Reef Drivers, hosted by Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PACIOOS) at http://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/projects/coral-drivers-amsam/. Partners included the American Samoa Division of Marine and Wildlife Resources and the American Samoa Coral Reef Advisory Group.

This eco-geospatial tool gathers, organizes, analyzes, models and visualizes spatially-explicit information for American Samoa. Hereby, GIS layers are developed to provide the spatial patterns of anthropogenic and environmental drivers that influence the status of coral reefs in the region and the potential for degradation, including satellite-based oceanography (sea surface temperature [SST], chlorophyll-a, photosynthetically active radiation [PAR], Turbidity [Kd490]), wave power, coastal habitat modification, and sediment export to nearshore.

These geospatial products provide the basis to answer questions such as which places and habitat types are the most impacted; which stressors should be the greatest concern in different areas; and where to prioritize different management strategies. In addition, these datasets also inform watershed management and conservation action plans.

American Samoa Coral Reef management agencies are mandated to protect coral reef ecosystems and the people who depend on them. Currently the spatial distribution, intensity, overlap and cumulative impact of human activities and environmental stressors is essential for effective management and protection of ecosystem services generated by coral reefs, is not readily available and easily accessible to resource managers and policy makers. The data layers generated in this project provide the means to identify how environmental and anthropogenic drivers may influence the spatial patterns of coral reef ecosystems across American Samoa, and support management aimed at promoting reef resilience and the protection of ecosystem services. This tool synthesizes large datasets and relevant environmental variables that will help managers in the territory answer these questions and then make informed management decisions for coral reef ecosystems.

Access the American Samoa Coral Reef Drivers eco-geospatial tool: http://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/projects/coral-drivers-amsam/#data

For a similar project in Hawaiʻi, visit Ocean Tipping Points: Hawaiʻi Case Study: http://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/projects/oceantippingpoints/

This project was led by staff members of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Ecosystem Sciences Division, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu. Hawaiʻi. Partners included the American Samoa Division of Marine and Wildlife Resources and the American Samoa Coral Reef Advisory Group. This project was funded by NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program, Grant #31248.

All data used to develop GIS layers for the American Samoa Coral Reef Drivers eco-geospatial tool is available on PACIOOS at links provided. The GIS layers include: 5 layers of chlorophyll, 5 layers of kd490, 5 layers of PAR, 5 layers of SST, 1 layer of wave power, 1 layer of sediment, and 1 layer of coastal modification

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.

American Samoa

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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 Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PACIOOS) Projects page: http://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/projects/coral-drivers-amsam/#data

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Please cite NOAA Fisheries, Ecosystem Science Division (ESD) when using the data.

Example:

Ecosystem Science Division; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, 2021: Land-Based Source Pollution (LBSP) GIS Layers for American Samoa Coral Reef Drivers eco-geospatial tool, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/65145.

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R , ArcGIS, and sedimentation modeling with the InVEST toolset

Coastal habitat modification is limited to data collected in 2003, and does not represent reflect recent developments.

Ocean color products are unreliable (heavily influenced) by the substrate reflectance in the nearshore area, so the nearshore pixels are filtered out (no values). These filtered blank cells were filled in with the estimated values from neighboring pixels.

Limitations of InVest SDR model include that the Universal Soil Loss Equation represents only rill or sheet erosion process, and doesn’t include gully, streambank and mass erosion. The models also average sediment export to the nearshore, doesn’t capture the intense storm events, and the equation was developed for the U.S. mainland

GIS layers were developed with data for specific timeframes, as noted in this metadata record.

Data for these layers were collected by multiple partners and detailed on the website of which the eco-geospatial tool is hosted. This project is also related to the Ocean Tipping Points project, which was developed for Hawai'i conservation and management. This tool was developed as a series of collaborative meetings among partners.

Data collected and produced by models was examined for each data layer as described on http://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/projects/coral-drivers-amsam/#data

No data will be archived.

To develop the LBSP GIS layers, there are three main components: satellite based oceanography, coastal habitat modification, and sediment export to nearshore. All data collected is publicly available, and utilized in an ArcGIS environment. The InVEST toolset was used to model sedimentation

The number of layers included in the tool which span the three components:

5 layers of chlorophyll, 5 layers of kd490, 5 layers of PAR, 5 layers of SST, 1 layer of wave power,1 layer of sediment, and 1 layer of coastal modification