CRED Rapid Ecological Assessment Line Point Intercept Survey of Benthic Parameter Assessments at French Frigate, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 2010
Description
Line point intercept (LPI) surveys and benthic composition assessments were conducted during Rapid Ecological Assessments (REA) as part of the Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) cruise HA1007 in Northwestern Hawaiian Islands from 20100904 to 20100929. Surveys are conducted by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) at biennial intervals to support a long-term NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) for sustainable management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems. During the cruise, 11 REA sites were surveyed at French Frigate in Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Benthic biologists from NOAA's Coral Reef Ecosystem Division conducted Line Point Intercept surveys to quantitatively document the benthic cover at pre-determined long-term monitoring REA sites. Two linear 25 m transects were surveyed with a 5 m inter-transect region between the end of Transect 1 and the start of Transect 2. The LPI diver determines the benthic composition at 20 cm intervals for a total of 125 data points per transect. All living benthic elements (e.g., coral, algae, and other invertebrates) were identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible, often substituting functional group categories for turf algae and crustose coralline algae when identification in the field was extremely difficult. In cases where the substrate is bare or covered with turf algae, the substrate composition is also noted as either sand, rock, rubble, carbonate pavement, or dead coral. The data allows for the assessment and monitoring of species composition and abundance and provide the basis for computing quantitative estimates of percent cover at higher taxonomic levels like functional group (live coral, macroalgae, turf algae) or on a finer taxonomic resolution such as genus level.
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Tags
- coral reef ecosystem
- united states of america
- reef monitoring and assessment
- marine ecosystem
- corals
- biosphere
- oceans
- benthic cover
- pacific reef assessment and monitoring program (pacific ramp): biennial monitoring for the u.s. paci
- numeric data sets
- hawaii
- biology
- earth science
- french frigate shoals (24n166w0001)
- nwhi
- honolulu
- rapid ecological assessments (rea)
- central pacific ocean
- coral reef ecology
- ocean basin
- reef assessment and monitoring program (ramp)
- coastal processes
- 1221
- northwestern hawaiian islands
- zoology
- coral reefs
- ha1007
- coris_metadata
- pacific ocean
- rapid assessment studies
- french frigate
- country/territory