Benthic Surveys in Faga'alu, American Samoa since 2012: benthic images collected during belt transect surveys in 2012, 2015, 2020

Description

The data described herein are part of a NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) funded project aimed establishing a baseline and assessing the status and trends for coral demographics and benthic cover and composition via Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) surveys conducted by the NOAA Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) -former Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP), at Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa in 2012, 2015, and 2020. Photoquadrat benthic images were collected in 2012, 2015, and 2020 only, via belt transect surveys of coral demography according to protocols established by ESD in 2012 and by the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) in 2015. In 2012 through 2015, the survey implemented a two-stage stratified random sampling (StRS) design to assess the Faga'alu benthic coral reef community, and a one-stage StRS design in 2020. The survey domain encompassed the majority of the mapped area of reef and hard bottom habitats in the 0–30 m depth range. The stratification scheme included cardinal position (i.e., north and south), reef zone (i.e., backreef and forereef), and depth (i.e., shallow: >0–6 m and mid-depth: >6–18 m). Sampling effort allocation was determined based on strata area and sites randomly located within strata. The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance through stratification using environmental covariates and by sampling more sites rather than more transects per site. Therefore, site-to-site comparisons should proceed with caution. Data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive, accession #0146682. The 2015 and 2020 photos have been analyzed for benthic cover (documented separately). Data from coral demographic surveys in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2020, in addition benthic cover data from line-point intercept surveys in 2012 were also collected ESD and are documented separately.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 List of survey sites, including site id, location (latitude/longitude), and survey date, where photoquadrat benthic images collected in 2020 http://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0259389
0 Photoquadrat benthic images collected in 2020 at stratified randomly selected sites (30 photos per site) in Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa. http://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0259389
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/25371
0 Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center homepage https://www.pifsc.noaa.gov
0 Link to the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program website https://coralreef.noaa.gov
0 NOAA Technical Memorandum, NMFS-PIFSC-109, 38 p. https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/27088
0 NOAA Technical Memorandum CRCP 23 http://www.coris.noaa.gov/activities/fagaaluWatershed/
0 PIFSC Special Publication, SP-18-002, 38 p. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5/SP-PIFSC-18-002
0 Online Resource https://www.pifsc.noaa.gov/cred/corals.php
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nmfs/pifsc/dmp/pdf/25371.pdf
0 List of survey sites, including site id, location (latitude/longitude), and survey date, where photoquads were collected. http://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0146682
0 Photoquadrat benthic images collected in 2012 and 2015 at monitoring sites (30 photos per site) in Faga'alu Bay via belt transect surveys of coral demography by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP). http://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0146682
0 List of survey sites, including site id, location (latitude/longitude), and survey date, where photoquads were collected. http://accession.nodc.noaa.gov/0146682
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

  • benthic missions
  • crep
  • coral cover
  • doc/noaa/nmfs/pifsc
  • united states of america
  • reef monitoring and assessment
  • corals
  • coral reef ecosystem division
  • pifsc
  • in situ biological
  • biosphere
  • oceans
  • coral reef conservation program
  • american samoa
  • 31259
  • noaa
  • nmfs
  • baseline studies
  • imagery
  • status and trends assessment for lbsp impacts on reef communities in faga'alu bay and vatia bay
  • comprehensive baseline assessment and pilot test of outcome performance measures in faga'alu bay
  • us doc
  • rapid ecological assessments
  • faga'alu (14s170w0005)
  • habitats
  • pacific islands fisheries science center
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • earth science
  • benthic biology
  • national marine fisheries service
  • rea
  • marine biology
  • coral communities
  • cred
  • visual images
  • faga'alu
  • coral reef ecology
  • ocean basin
  • photoquadrat images
  • ecosystem sciences division
  • coral
  • coastal processes
  • tutuila island
  • zoology
  • coral reefs
  • 917
  • pacific ocean
  • rapid assessment studies
  • country/territory
  • pago pago harbor
  • south pacific ocean
  • coral reef ecosystem program

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