Baseline assessment of the benthic communities of the Flower Garden Banks

Description

The work developed baseline information on fish and benthic communities within the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). Surveys employed diving, technical diving, ROV, and hydroacoustics technologies for a comprehensive assessment of the fish and benthic habitat communities of the East and West Bank. The FGBNMS represents the northernmost tropical western Atlantic coral reef on the continental shelf and support the most highly developed offshore hard bank community in the region. The complexity of habitats supports a diverse assemblage of organisms including approximately 250 species of fish, 23 species of coral, and 80 species of algae in addition to large sponge communities. Understanding and monitoring these resources is critical to both sanctuary inventory and management activities. During the course of the sanctuary's management plan review process, the impact of fishing was identified as a priority issue, and the concept of a research only area was suggested. The purpose of this project will be to provide baseline data for all benthic habitats and communities.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 Online Resource http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/ecosystems/sanctuaries/fgb_nms/
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/39315
0 Online Resource http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/ecosystems/sanctuaries/fgb_nms/
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nos/nccos/dmp/pdf/39315.pdf
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords

Tags

  • coral cover
  • hard coral cover dead percentage
  • united states of america
  • reef monitoring and assessment
  • aquatic habitat
  • corals
  • east flower garden banks (27n093w0001)
  • benthic habitat
  • national ocean service
  • in situ biological
  • national centers for coastal ocean science
  • biosphere
  • biodiversity
  • oceans
  • algae
  • marine invertebrates
  • population density
  • fgb
  • hard coral cover
  • description
  • calcareous macroalgae
  • noaa
  • numeric data sets
  • algal cover
  • hard coral cover live percentage
  • baseline studies
  • macroinvertebrates
  • biology
  • quadrat monitoring
  • habitats
  • in situ
  • atlantic ocean
  • gulf of mexico
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • earth science
  • texas
  • coralline algae
  • vegetation
  • fleshy macroalgae
  • crustose coralline algae
  • coral diseases
  • doc/noaa/nos/nccos
  • marine biology
  • flower garden banks
  • encrusting macroalgae
  • bleaching
  • benthos analysis
  • transect monitoring
  • reef habitat
  • coral reef ecology
  • ocean basin
  • coastal processes
  • octocoral cover
  • west flower garden banks (27n093w0002)
  • census
  • zoology
  • coral reefs
  • rapid assessment studies
  • country/territory
  • rugosity
  • belt transect
  • turf algae

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