Coral Demographics Survey Protocol for the Atlantic Region: U.S. Caribbean, Florida and Gulf of Mexico: 2018

The goal of the coral demographic surveys is to collect and report information on species composition, density, size, abundance, and specific parameters of condition (% live vs. dead, bleaching, disease) of non-juvenile scleractinian corals (>4 cm maximum diameter), and of overall species diversity (all corals) using 10m x 1m belt transects in a stratified random sampling design in hardbottom and coral reef habitats in Florida, U.S. Caribbean (U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) and FGBNMS. Surveys are concurrent with and along the same transect of the Benthic Assessment surveys, including the Line Point-Intercept (LPI) survey

This coral demographics protocol was devised to provide more detailed and species-specific insight ("signal magnitude"™) for coral populations than is provided by percent cover. Specifics of the protocol are based closely on other long-established monitoring programs in the Atlantic region, including Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA, Caribbean-wide), Sanctuary Coral Reef Ecosystem Assessment and Monitoring (SCREAM, Florida), Florida Reef Resilience Program (FRRP, Florida), Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (CREMP, Florida) and the U.S. Virgin Islands Territorial Coral Reef Monitoring Program (TCRMP, USVI).