Deep-sea coral and sponge distribution, abundance, and diversity models of the Aleutian Islands (NCEI Accession 0289893)

Coral and sponge presence, abundance (measured as catch per unit effort (CPUE)), and diversity (number of coral families) models were generated based off of data from bottom trawl surveys in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska from 1991-2011 using the generalized additive modeling method at a 100 x 100 m spatial resolution. Sponge models were left at the phylum level due to taxonomic uncertainty. Greater certainty in coral taxonomy allowed for modeling of individual Stylasteridae and Primnoidae coral families. A further overall coral group modeling was conducted to include all hydrocoral and gorgonian corals identified. All models are presented in the GeoTIFF raster format. Environmental layers used in the modeling of the taxa are also part of this data package. They include the parameters GeoTIFF rasters of latitude, longitude, bathymetry, aspect relative to mean current, mean bottom temperature for the region, current speed and direction for the deepest depth bin at each sampling point, ocean color, seafloor rugosity, sediment type, seafloor slope, mean current speed (exclusive of tides), and max tidal current measured over a year. For details on the measurement of each environmental layer, see Rooper et al. (2014).