Characterization of benthic habitats within St. Thomas East End Reserve (STEER), USVI

Description

NCCOS' Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA) is working closely with a number of divisions in the USVI DPNR (e.g., Divisions of Fish and Wildlife and Coastal Zone Management), the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to develop the baseline characterization of chemical contamination, toxicity, and the marine resources in the St. Thomas East End Reserve (STEER) in St. Thomas, USVI. The STEER contains extensive mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs. Within the watershed, however, are a large active landfill, numerous marinas, various commercial/industrial activities, an EPA Superfund Site, resorts, and several residential areas served by individual septic systems. This baseline assessment will provide managers with critical information needed to help preserve and restore habitats, including a number of nursery areas within the STEER that are important to commercial and recreational fisheries. As part of the characterization, a field survey was conducted in June 2012 to conduct a biological assessment of fish communities and benthic habitats within the STEER and at select hardbottom locations adjacent to STEER. The basis for this work was the nearshore benthic habitats maps (less than 100 ft depth) created by NOAA's Biogeography Program in 2001 and NOS' bathymetry models. Using ArcView GIS software, the digitized habitat maps were stratified to select sampling stations. Sites were randomly selected within strata to ensure coverage of the entire study region. The habitat stratification was divided into three major habitat types: hardbottom which includes reef, pavement, etc. inside STEER; softbottom which consists of sand and seagrass, and mangrove. In addition, two harbottom areas outside STEER of interest to STEER's Core Team were included as a separate stratum. Using standardized protocols of NOAA's Coral Reef Ecosystem Monitoring Project, the fish and benthic habitat survey was conducted by two scientific divers. During each dive one diver quantified the species and size of fish within a 25 x 4 m transect while a second diver characterized the habitat and invertebrate community.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
0 Downloadable data http://www8.nos.noaa.gov/bpdmWeb/queryMain.aspx
0 Downloadable data http://www8.nos.noaa.gov/biogeo_public/habitat_photos.aspx
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/39573
0 Online Resource http://www8.nos.noaa.gov/bpdmWeb/queryMain.aspx
0 Online Resource http://www2.coastalscience.noaa.gov/projects/
0 Online Resource http://www8.nos.noaa.gov/biogeo_public/reef_photos.aspx
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
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nos/nccos/dmp/pdf/39573.pdf

Tags

  • coral cover
  • hard coral cover dead percentage
  • united states of america
  • boring
  • reef monitoring and assessment
  • aquatic habitat
  • virgin islands
  • corals
  • erect
  • benthic habitat
  • benthic
  • marine plants
  • national ocean service
  • st. thomas (18n064w0033)
  • in situ biological
  • national centers for coastal ocean science
  • biosphere
  • biodiversity
  • oceans
  • algae
  • leeward islands
  • marine invertebrates
  • population density
  • encrusting
  • hard coral cover
  • environmental monitoring
  • description
  • calcareous macroalgae
  • noaa
  • numeric data sets
  • algal cover
  • caribbean sea
  • hard coral cover live percentage
  • baseline studies
  • macroinvertebrates
  • sponges
  • quadrat monitoring
  • st. thomas
  • habitats
  • us_carib
  • visual
  • in situ
  • atlantic ocean
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • earth science
  • coralline algae
  • seagrass
  • vegetation
  • fleshy macroalgae
  • crustose coralline algae
  • coral diseases
  • doc/noaa/nos/nccos
  • marine biology
  • encrusting macroalgae
  • bleaching
  • benthos analysis
  • transect monitoring
  • reef habitat
  • coral reef ecology
  • ocean basin
  • coastal processes
  • octocoral cover
  • photographic
  • damage assessment
  • census
  • zoology
  • coral reefs
  • u. s. virgin islands
  • rapid assessment studies
  • country/territory
  • rugosity
  • belt transect
  • turf algae

Topics

Categories