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    • Seafloor substrate (hard and soft bottom) maps at select islands and atolls in American Samoa, the Mariana Archipelago, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas

    Metadata Updated: March 16, 2024

    Seafloor substrate (i.e., hard vs. soft bottom) maps from 0 to up to 50 m depths around select islands and atolls in American Samoa, the Mariana Archipelago, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas were produced by the NOAA Fisheries Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD). The islands and atolls include Tutuila, Ofu and Olosega, Tau, and Rose in American Samoa; Anatahan, Maug, Aguijan, Pagan, Rota, Tinian, Saipan, and Guam in the Mariana Archipelago; and Howland, Jarvis, Kingman, Palmyra, and Johnston in the Pacific Remote Island Areas. This is a preliminary product, derived from integrating two existing map products: hard and soft seafloor substrate maps derived from an unsupervised classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymetry derivatives produced by ESD, and shallow-water benthic habitat maps generated by the NOAA Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. The resulting maps were then updated with ESD's groundtruth data, including biological survey data and benthic cover data derived from the analysis of seafloor images. The final maps were interpolated to fill in gaps and smoothed to remove isolated pixels, and the substrate data were constrained up to 50-m depths. For the Pacific Remote Island Areas where no benthic habitat maps were available, hard and soft substrate maps were newly generated from high spatial resolution satellite images.

    Access & Use Information

    License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Date February 29, 2024
    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date March 16, 2024
    Reference Date(s) 2016-08 (creation), 2018-04 (revision), 2018 (publication)
    Frequency Of Update notPlanned

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NMFS PIFSC

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    An example hard- and soft-bottom substrate map of Tutuila (prepared using a different methodology compared with the substrate maps prepared for the project described here).

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date February 29, 2024
    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date March 16, 2024
    Reference Date(s) 2016-08 (creation), 2018-04 (revision), 2018 (publication)
    Responsible Party Pacific Islands Regional Office (Point of Contact); (Custodian)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:34310
    Access Constraints Cite As: Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, [Date of Access]: Seafloor substrate (hard and soft bottom) maps at select islands and atolls in American Samoa, the Mariana Archipelago, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas [Data Date Range], https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/34310., Access Constraints: None, Use Constraints: These data are not to be used for navigation purposes. Please cite NOAA Fisheries Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) when using the data: Ecosystem Sciences Division, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, 2018: Seafloor substrate (hard and soft bottom) maps at select islands and atolls in American Samoa, the Mariana Archipelago, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/34310., Distribution Liability: While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed or implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty.
    Bbox East Long -168.115
    Bbox North Lat -14.1
    Bbox South Lat -14.57
    Bbox West Long -170.92
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update notPlanned
    Graphic Preview Description An example hard- and soft-bottom substrate map of Tutuila (prepared using a different methodology compared with the substrate maps prepared for the project described here).
    Graphic Preview File https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pibhmc/amsamoa_images/TUT_unspv_hardvsoft_5m_445.jpg
    Graphic Preview Type JPG
    Harvest Object Id 31c18f91-f6fc-4519-b36c-9fa31272593b
    Harvest Source Id c0beac72-5f43-4455-8c33-1b345fbc2dfe
    Harvest Source Title NMFS PIFSC
    Licence NOAA provides no warranty, nor accepts any liability occurring from any incomplete, incorrect, or misleading data, or from any incorrect, incomplete, or misleading use of the data. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether or not the data is suitable for the intended purpose.
    Lineage The steps in this analysis included: 1) re-categorizing all data to simple hard/soft substrates, 2) integrating all data following data prioritization rules established by an accuracy assessment, 3) filling gaps in data using interpolation, and 4) extracting the data to known depth ranges for the coral species in question. Biogeography Program shallow-water benthic habitat maps and ESD backscatter-derived hard-soft substrate maps were unavailable for several locations in the Pacific Remote Island Areas. Satellite images were processed for these places using the method described in Mumby and Edwards (2000) and then unsupervised classification was applied to derive hard and soft substrates for these places.
    Metadata Language eng
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-170.92, -14.57], [-168.115, -14.57], [-168.115, -14.1], [-170.92, -14.1], [-170.92, -14.57]]]}
    Progress completed
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 2003
    Temporal Extent End 2010

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