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    • Pacific Islands Network (PACN) Marine Monitoring Sites

    Metadata Updated: November 10, 2023

    Locations of monitoring sites related to the Pacific Islands Network (PACN) Benthic Marine and Marine Fish monitoring protocols administered by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). These monitoring sites are located within nearshore waters of the following National Parks:

    • Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park (NHP) on the western shore of Hawaii Island (Big Island)
    • Kalaupapa National Historical Park (NHP) on the nothern shore of Molokai in Hawaii
    • War in the Pacific National Historical Park (NHP) on the western shore of Guam
    • National Park (NP) of American Samoa on the northern shore of Tutuila

    The benthic marine community within PACN is a complex ecologic system and a diverse taxonomic environment, including algae and corals and other invertebrates. Reef-building corals are the primary architectural organism and are sensitive to environmental degradation; therefore, they are a good indicator of overall health for nearshore marine ecosystems. Primary stressors to coral reefs include disease, bleaching, sedimentation, eutrophication, storms, and global climate change. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has proposed using coral reefs as a worldwide indicator ecosystem for global climate change (Spalding et al. 2004). For these reasons, the PACN has chosen to implement long-term monitoring of benthic marine communities. Benthic marine communities are most closely linked with marine fish, and monitoring efforts will be conducted at the same time and location to maximize data value.

    Fish are a major component of coral reef ecosystems. This highly diverse assemblage of carnivores, planktivores, herbivores, and detritovores serves a variety of ecological functions. Fish affect ecosystem structure, productivity, and sustainability. Selected species can act as indicators of general reef health, environmental stress, and potential ecosystem changes. Fishing is increasingly recognized as a principal threat to Pacific Ocean coral reefs and other marine ecosystems worldwide. In this respect, it is highly probable that most of the Pacific island national parks can be categorized as "impaired" to "seriously impaired" in terms of their fish communities. While the harvest of fish and other marine creatures will be addressed in a separate (fisheries-dependent) monitoring protocol, data collected through PACN marine fish monitoring contributes to the overall fish analyses by providing an in-water (fisheries-independent) assessment of the size and abundance of species within park waters.

    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.

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    Dates

    Metadata Date March 30, 2021
    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date November 10, 2023
    Reference Date(s) January 25, 2016 (creation), January 25, 2016 (issued), January 25, 2016 (revision)
    Frequency Of Update

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from ioos

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    Sample image.

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date March 30, 2021
    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date November 10, 2023
    Reference Date(s) January 25, 2016 (creation), January 25, 2016 (issued), January 25, 2016 (revision)
    Responsible Party U.S. National Park Service (NPS) (Point of Contact)
    Contact Email
    Guid pac_nps_all_pacn_sites
    Access Constraints
    Bbox East Long 144.73060997
    Bbox North Lat 21.21557093
    Bbox South Lat -14.28128449
    Bbox West Long -170.72420557
    Coupled Resource [{"title": [], "href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": []}, {"title": [], "href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": []}, {"title": [], "href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": []}]
    Frequency Of Update
    Graphic Preview Description Sample image.
    Graphic Preview File http://pacioos.org/metadata/browse/pac_nps_all_pacn_sites.png
    Harvest Object Id 4d679f19-a046-4eb9-bbf2-2300e3856ed9
    Harvest Source Id 54e15a6e-6dde-4c9c-a8f0-345cc0dfccfb
    Harvest Source Title ioos
    Licence
    Lineage 2016-01-25T00:00:00Z OGC web services (WMS and WFS) enabled by PacIOOS via GeoServer. Original data from source provider may have been reformatted, reprojected, or adjusted in other ways to optimize these capabilities.
    Metadata Language eng
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-170.72420557, -14.28128449], [144.73060997, -14.28128449], [144.73060997, 21.21557093], [-170.72420557, 21.21557093], [-170.72420557, -14.28128449]]]}
    Progress
    Spatial Data Service Type Open Geospatial Consortium Web Feature Service (WFS)
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True

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