Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content
  • Feedback

    • Structure from Motion (SfM) Coral Vital Rates Annotations derived from Fixed Site Imagery across the U.S. Pacific since 2014

    Metadata Updated: September 20, 2025

    The data described here are coral planar area measurements derived from the analysis of benthic photomosaic imagery collected at fixed sites across Pacific Island regions since 2014. The source imagery was collected using a Structure from Motion (SfM) approach during in-water surveys conducted by divers. Imagery archival is documented separately here: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/63091. All sites were surveyed at least twice and image collection intervals ranged from a few minutes (for error estimation) to 5 years apart. In situ surveys, post-processing, and analysis were funded by NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and Ocean Acidification Program (OAP). Data collection was conducted by the NOAA Fisheries, Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD).

    Survey sites consisted of sites previously established by collaborators from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, starting as far back as 2014, and new sites established in 2019 by NOAA ESD. During each survey, physical markings which identify each permanent survey site were either established or found using GPS coordinates previously collected. During image collection, the diver swam at a constant distance from the bottom of the reef while continuously capturing overlapping photographs, capturing approximately 100 m2 of reef habitat. 3D dense point clouds (DPCs) and 2D orthorectified images (orthoprojections) derived from these photographs were used to to measure changes in coral vital rates (e.g. recruitment, mortality, growth) over time.

    Due to the labor-intensive and time-consuming nature of coral annotation, we used a randomized sub-sampling strategy that provided enough colony-level data across a wide range of size classes to fit robust demographic models. Each site was sub-sampled by randomly distributing a minimum of 10 0.5 m2 quadrats throughout each orthoprojection. All corals whose centroid fell within the quadrat were annotated until a sufficient number of corals were annotated (n >/= 30 for each target coral species). The target taxa species vary by region and include Acropora, Montipora, Pocillopora, Porites.

    In total, this dataset includes planar area and associated vital rates measurements for 5 coral species in 2 genera (Pocillopora and Porites) at 14 sites throughout the Hawaiian Archipelago, 3 genera (Pocillopora, Porites and Acropora) at 10 sites throughout the Mariana Archipelago and 4 genera (Pocillopora, Porites, Acropora and Montipora) at 11 sites across American Samoa and Pacific Remote Islands and Atolls (PRIAs).

    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 September 9, 2025
    Metadata Created Date September 20, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 20, 2025
    Reference Date(s) July 26, 2022 (creation), 2025-09 (publication)
    Frequency Of Update notPlanned

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NMFS PIFSC

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date September 9, 2025
    Metadata Created Date September 20, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 20, 2025
    Reference Date(s) July 26, 2022 (creation), 2025-09 (publication)
    Responsible Party (Point of Contact, Custodian)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:63093
    Access Constraints Cite As: Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, [Date of Access]: Structure from Motion (SfM) Coral Vital Rates Annotations derived from Fixed Site Imagery across the U.S. Pacific since 2014 [Data Date Range], https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/63093., Access Constraints: None, Use Constraints: Please cite NOAA Fisheries, Ecosystem Science Division (ESD) when using the data. Example: Ecosystem Sciences Division, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, 2023: Structure from Motion (SfM) Coral Vital Rates Annotations derived from Fixed Site Imagery across the U.S. Pacific since 2014, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/63093., 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 -154.806789
    Bbox North Lat 28.455623
    Bbox South Lat -14.373615
    Bbox West Long 144.618287
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update notPlanned
    Harvest Object Id faad8bfb-10d0-4079-8316-8fc482955b2b
    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 Benthic imagery was collected at permanent sites and generated into 3D dense point clouds (DPCs) using Agisoft Metashape software. DPCs from the same site, but different collection dates were converted into 2D orthoprojections and scaled, oriented and aligned together. Next, the orthoprojections were exported for annotation. Orthoprojections were sub-sampled by randomly distributing quadrats throughout the orthoprojection. Quadrat location was conserved across all orthoprojections associated with the same permanent site. Target coral species were identified within each quadrat and their perimeters were annotated. The changes in coral planar area of each coral colony was tracked by linking annotations of the same live coral across each time point. All statistics and figures were performed in R.
    Metadata Language eng
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[144.618287, -14.373615], [-154.806789, -14.373615], [-154.806789, 28.455623], [144.618287, 28.455623], [144.618287, -14.373615]]]}
    Progress onGoing
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 2014-01-27

    Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.