National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic Cover Derived from Analysis of Annotated Benthic Images Collected During Stratified Random Surveys (StRS) across the U.S. Pacific...

This metadata record describes the benthic cover data collected under the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) across the U.S. Pacific Islands, including American Samoa, CNMI, Guam, Hawai'i, and Pacific Remote Island Areas. These data characterize benthic cover, coral communities, and habitat structure to support ecosystem condition assessments and resource management. This record replaces InPort items 25274, 36155, 36156, and 36157.

The coral reef benthic community data described here result from the annotation (classification) of benthic images collected during photoquadrat surveys conducted by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD, formerly the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division) as part of NOAA's ongoing National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). SCUBA divers conducted benthic photoquadrat surveys in coral reef habitats during ESD-led NCRMP missions to the islands and atolls the U.S. Pacific Islands region, according to protocols established by ESD and NCRMP. Sites prior to 2013 were collected via the Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP), the predecessor to NCRMP, but annotated using NCRMP protocols.

Still photographs were collected with a high-resolution digital camera mounted on a pole to document the benthic community composition at predetermined points along transects at stratified random sites surveyed only once as part of Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) surveys for corals and fish (Ayotte et al. 2015 and Winston et al. 2020, respectively), with 30 photoquadrat images collected at each survey site. A stratified random sampling (StRS) design was employed to survey these coral reef ecosystems. The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance through stratification using environmental covariates and by sampling more sites rather than sampling more transects at a site. Therefore, site-level estimates and site to site comparisons should be used with caution.

The benthic habitat images were quantitatively analyzed using the Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe; Kohler and Gill, 2006) software from 2010-2014 and using the web-based image annotation tool, CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2015) from 2015 to present. Ten points were randomly overlaid on each image and analysts identified the organism or type of substrate beneath, with 300 annotations (points) generated per site following Lozada-Misa et al. (2017). Images are analyzed to produce three functional group levels of benthic cover: Tier 1 (e.g., hard coral, soft coral, macroalgae, turf algae), Tier 2 (e.g., Hard Coral = massive, branching, foliose, encrusting; Macroalgae = upright macroalgae, encrusting macroalgae, bluegreen macroalgae, and Halimeda), and Tier 3 (e.g., Hard Coral = Astreopora sp, Favia sp, Pocillopora; Macroalgae = Caulerpa sp, Dictyosphaeria sp, Padina sp).

To consolidate regional NCRMP benthic survey metadata into a single Pacific-wide record for long-term monitoring and analysis of coral reef ecosystems.

The benthic data resulting from the collection and annotation of benthic imagery can ultimately be used to produce estimates of benthic community taxonomic composition, relative abundance (percentage of benthic cover), and frequency of occurrence, which are fundamental to understanding the status and change of coral reef benthic communities.

NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC)

Benthic survey data including benthic cover, composition, coral community structure, and habitat metrics across U.S. Pacific Islands coral reefs.

NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by errors or omissions in the data, nor for the failure of the data to function on a particular system.

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

Mariana Archipelago (Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, including Agrihan, Aguijan, Alamagan, Asuncion, Farallon de Pajaros, Guguan, Maug, Pagan, Rota, Saipan, Sarigan, and Tinian).

Hawaiian Archipelago including the main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

American Samoa including Tutuila, Manu'a (Ofo, Olosega, and Ta'u), Rose Atoll, and Swains.

Pacific-wide

Not applicable

Not applicable

NOAA ESD Data Sharing Recommendations (v9.0)

Data can be accessed via NOAA NCEI Ocean Archive.

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 Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP). The analysis and interpretations presented here are solely that of the current authors.

None

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

Example:

Ecosystem Science Division (ESD); Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2026). National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Benthic Cover Derived from Analysis of Benthic Images Collected during Stratified Random Surveys (StRS) across the U.S. Pacific since 2010. NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/77771

None

None

PIFSC Oracle database view: MV_BIA_CNET_ANALYSIS_DATA (CoralNet) / MV_BIA_PERC_COVER_PHOTO_CLI_RW (CPCe)

Data collected using standard NCRMP benthic survey protocols; accuracy verified through QA/QC procedures.

Complete for all surveyed sites across American Samoa, CNMI, Guam, and Hawaii.

Data follows consistent schema across regions.

Field and lab QA/QC protocols applied; data reviewed before publication.

NOAA IRC and NOAA Fisheries ITS resources and assets.

The stratified random sampling (StRS) design and benthic photoquadrat survey methodology, employed by the NOAA Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) since 2013. Benthic imagery is collected at stratified random sites. The imagery is analyzed using Coral Point Count with Excel Extentions (CPCe) or CoralNet to derive benthic cover values.