Benthic images collected at coral reef sites in Timor-Leste from 2012-10-15 to 2014-10-09 (NCEI Accession 0166378)

Photographs of the seafloor were collected during benthic photo-quadrat surveys conducted by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) in hard bottom shallow water (< 15 m) habitats in Timor-Leste. Photographs were collected along transects at fixed climate survey sites in October 2012 and September-October 2014 (10 sites and 8 sites, respectively), and during reef fish surveys surveys at 150 sites that were selected using a stratified random sampling design in June 2013.

Climate sites were established by CREP to establish ecological baselines for climate change by measuring multiple features of the coral reef environment (in addition to the data described herein) over time. The reef fish surveys were conducted to generate baseline data on the nearshore coral reef fish assemblages and associated benthic communities around Timor-Leste's north coast and Atauro Island. The photographs can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive.

The imagery from 2013 and 2014 has been quantitatively analyzed using image analysis software to derive an estimate of percent benthic cover. The benthic cover data, and the associated reef fish survey data and parameters measured to establish ecological baselines for climate change are archived separately.