Benthic percent cover derived from image analysis for selected locations in the Pacific Ocean

Description

The data products described herein are part of the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) funded projects aimed at documenting the status and trends for benthic cover and composition on coral reef ecosystems across the U.S. Pacific States and Territories, conducted, by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). Benthic habitat imagery collected as a part of Towed-diver Surveys (TDS) and Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) surveys for corals and fish are quantitatively analyzed implementing the Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe; Kohler and Gill, 2006) software, whereby 10 stratified random points are projected on each image and the benthic elements falling directly underneath each point will be identified to three functional groups levels: Tier 1 (e.g., hard coral, soft coral, macroalgae, turf algae, etc.), Tier 2 (e.g., Hard Coral = massive, branching, foliose, encrusting, etc.; Macroalgae = upright macroalgae, encrusting macroalgae, bluegreen macroalgae, and Halimeda, etc.), and Tier 3 (e.g., Hard Coral = Astreopora sp, Favia sp, Pocillopora, etc.; Macroalgae = Caulerpa sp, Dictyosphaeria sp, Padina sp, etc.). Power analyses support the methodological approach outlined above, whereby statistically sound sub-jurisdictional (island) level, benthic cover estimates can be successfully derived from REA and TDS photos. Benthic percent cover at the island level can be determined from data derived from towed-diver survey images while benthic percent cover is calculated at the site level for data derived from stratified random sampling images. Benthic percent cover has been derived from imagery collected during TDS every other year in American Samoa from 2004 to 2010, Guam from 2005 to 2011, and the Main Hawaiian Islands from 2006 to 2010 as well as 2005, and during REA surveys in American Samoa in 2010, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in 2011, and the Main Hawaiian Islands in 2010 and 2013, survey imagery for Guam and the CNMI collected in 2014 is currently being analyzed (as of the publication date of this record).

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