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Benthic Cover Derived from Benthic Images Collected Across the Hawaiian Archipelago from 2019-08-27 to 2019-11-14 During a Bleaching Event (NCEI Accession 0259266)

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: August 03, 2026 at 04:11 AM | Dataset Last Updated: September 08, 2022 at 12:00 AM
The data described here result from benthic photo-quadrat surveys conducted along transects at stratified random sites (StRS) and fixed sites surveyed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) and the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) during bleaching event in 2019. This benthic cover dataset follows a typical benthic image analysis, but includes options for bleaching in imagery annotations. Benthic habitat imagery was quantitatively analyzed using the web-based annotation tool CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2016) with the addition of codes for bleaching of hard coral. In general, images are analyzed to produce three functional group levels of benthic cover: Tier 1 (e.g., hard coral, soft coral, macroalgae, turf algae, etc.), Tier 2 (e.g., Hard Coral = massive, branching, foliose, encrusting, etc.; Macroalgae = upright macroalgae, encrusting macroalgae, bluegreen macroalgae, and Halimeda, etc.), and Tier 3 (e.g., Hard Coral = Astreopora sp, Favia sp, Pocillopora, etc.; Macroalgae = Caulerpa sp, Dictyosphaeria sp, Padina sp, etc.). For each category of hard coral, a bleached and non-bleached option existed during analysis to facilitate the collection of coral bleaching percent cover data. In the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) and some sites in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), a StRS design was employed to select random sites. 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 island, reef zone, and depth in all regions, as well as habitat structure type in the Main Hawaiian Islands. Sampling effort was allocated based on strata area and sites were randomly located within strata. Sites were surveyed using photo-quadrats along transects to collect benthic imagery to ultimately produce estimates of relative abundance (percent cover), frequency of occurrence, benthic community taxonomic composition and relative generic richness. The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance through stratification using environmental covariates and by sampling more sites rather than sampling more transects at a site. Therefore, site-level estimates and site to site comparisons should be used with caution. Surveys conducted in the Main Hawaiian Islands were conducted during shore-based missions and were all StRS, whereas surveys in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were performed opportunistically during the regularly scheduled NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) mission and encompassed StRS as well as fixed sites, which include climate stations and permanent sites

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0259266 BENTHIC COMMUNITIES BENTHIC SPECIES biological data CORAL CORAL - BLEACHING HABITAT - BENTHIC INVERTEBRATE SPECIES

Complete Metadata
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description The data described here result from benthic photo-quadrat surveys conducted along transects at stratified random sites (StRS) and fixed sites surveyed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) and the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) during bleaching event in 2019. This benthic cover dataset follows a typical benthic image analysis, but includes options for bleaching in imagery annotations. Benthic habitat imagery was quantitatively analyzed using the web-based annotation tool CoralNet (Beijbom et al. 2016) with the addition of codes for bleaching of hard coral. In general, images are analyzed to produce three functional group levels of benthic cover: Tier 1 (e.g., hard coral, soft coral, macroalgae, turf algae, etc.), Tier 2 (e.g., Hard Coral = massive, branching, foliose, encrusting, etc.; Macroalgae = upright macroalgae, encrusting macroalgae, bluegreen macroalgae, and Halimeda, etc.), and Tier 3 (e.g., Hard Coral = Astreopora sp, Favia sp, Pocillopora, etc.; Macroalgae = Caulerpa sp, Dictyosphaeria sp, Padina sp, etc.). For each category of hard coral, a bleached and non-bleached option existed during analysis to facilitate the collection of coral bleaching percent cover data. In the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) and some sites in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), a StRS design was employed to select random sites. 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 island, reef zone, and depth in all regions, as well as habitat structure type in the Main Hawaiian Islands. Sampling effort was allocated based on strata area and sites were randomly located within strata. Sites were surveyed using photo-quadrats along transects to collect benthic imagery to ultimately produce estimates of relative abundance (percent cover), frequency of occurrence, benthic community taxonomic composition and relative generic richness. The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance through stratification using environmental covariates and by sampling more sites rather than sampling more transects at a site. Therefore, site-level estimates and site to site comparisons should be used with caution. Surveys conducted in the Main Hawaiian Islands were conducted during shore-based missions and were all StRS, whereas surveys in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were performed opportunistically during the regularly scheduled NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) mission and encompassed StRS as well as fixed sites, which include climate stations and permanent sites
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identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions/iso/xml/0259266.xml
issued 2022-08-19T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
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  "BENTHIC COMMUNITIES",
  "BENTHIC SPECIES",
  "biological data",
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  "CORAL - BLEACHING",
  "HABITAT - BENTHIC",
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  "NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Ecosystem Sciences Division",
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  "Kaneohe Bay",
  "North Pacific Ocean",
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  "31283",
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  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Aquatic Habitat > Benthic Habitat",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Aquatic Habitat > Reef Habitat",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Microbiota > Blue-green Algae",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Vegetation > Algae > Algal Cover",
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  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Vegetation > Algae > Encrusting Macroalgae",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Vegetation > Algae > Turf Algae",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Coral Diseases > Bleaching",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Benthos Analysis",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Benthos Analysis > Quadrat Monitoring > Photograph Analysis",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Benthos Analysis > Transect Monitoring",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Benthos Analysis > Transect Monitoring > Belt Transect",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Benthos Analysis > Transect Monitoring > Linear Transect (point)",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > In Situ Biological",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Photographic Analysis",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Rapid Assessment Studies",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Mollusks > Tridacna",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Sponges",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral Reef Ecology",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral Reef Ecology > Benthic biology",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral Reef Ecology > Coral Cover",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral Reef Ecology > Hard Coral Cover",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral Reef Ecology > Hard Coral Cover Live percentage",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral Reef Ecology > Octocoral Cover",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Marine Biology > Coral",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Marine Biology > Coral Communities",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Marine Biology > Marine Invertebrates",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Marine Biology > Marine Invertebrates > Macroinvertebrates",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Marine Biology > Marine Plants > Seagrass",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > PLANTS > MACROALGAE (SEAWEEDS)",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOSYSTEMS > MARINE ECOSYSTEMS > BENTHIC",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > CORAL REEFS > CORAL BLEACHING",
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landingPage https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
language 
[]
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2022-09-08T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
{
  "name": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
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references 
[
  "https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/59195",
  "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130312",
  "https://doi.org/10.7289/v5/ar-pifsc-h-17-02",
  "https://doi.org/10.25923/ws5s-km69"
]
rights otherRestrictions
spatial -155.88832,19.31344,-178.383718,28.459215
temporal 2019-08-27T00:00:00+00:00/2019-11-14T00:00:00+00:00
theme 
[
  "geospatial"
]
title Benthic Cover Derived from Benthic Images Collected Across the Hawaiian Archipelago from 2019-08-27 to 2019-11-14 During a Bleaching Event (NCEI Accession 0259266)

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