https://doi.org/10.7289/v5vd6wts https://doi.org/10.7289/v5xw4h4z https://doi.org/10.7289/v5pg1q23 https://doi.org/10.7289/v5ww7fqk 6ce70eba-ffd8-48e3-ae1a-5e38b6da6b93 https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/63d1b286d34e06fef15008e1 https://obis.org/dataset/12f5c03c-dfb9-48d0-adf9-e94b5dab00c9 https://ipt-obis.gbif.us/resource?r=noaa_ncrmp_benthic_assessment noaa_ncrmp_benthic_assessment NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)

US

https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/ NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC)

US

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/about/southeast-fisheries-science-center Sarah Groves NOAA NCCOS / CSS sarah.groves@noaa.gov Bethany Williams NOAA NCCOS / CSS bethany.williams@noaa.gov 0000-0002-5722-8386 Alexis Sturm NOAA NCCOS lexie.sturm@noaa.gov 0000-0003-2153-7811 Abby Benson U.S. Geological Survey Biologist albenson@usgs.gov 0000-0002-4391-107X publisher Sarah Groves NOAA NCCOS / CSS sarah.groves@noaa.gov processor Bethany Williams NOAA NCCOS / CSS bethany.williams@noaa.gov 0000-0002-5722-8386 processor Stephen Formel U.S. Geological Survey Biologist sformel@usgs.gov 0000-0001-7418-1244 processor Erica Towle National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) National Coral Reef Monitoring Program Coordinator erica.towle@noaa.gov dVFoIN8AAAAJ distributor Alexis Sturm NOAA NCCOS lexie.sturm@noaa.gov 0000-0003-2153-7811 processor 2025-02-24 eng The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program (Coral Program) invests approximately $5 million of its annual operating budget to support the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) for biological, climate, and socioeconomic monitoring throughout the U.S. Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico coral reef areas. The monitoring program is unique for its national scale across a vast geographic area as well as its progressive inclusion of social science integrated with biophysical science. The effort provides a consistent flow of information about the status and trends of environmental conditions, natural resources, and the people and processes that interact with coral reef ecosystems. The overarching goal is to collect the scientific data needed to evaluate changing conditions of U.S. coral reef ecosystems, which are among the most biologically diverse and economically valuable ecosystems on earth, providing billions of dollars in food, jobs, recreational opportunities, coastal protection, and other important ecosystem services. The program focuses on four monitoring themes: benthic community structure, fish community structure, climate impacts, and socioeconomic condition. Within the benthic theme, the core indicators include: coral species abundance and size structure, coral diversity, coral condition, benthic percent cover, key coral and mobile invertebrate species, and reef rugosity. Data provided here include hard coral species percent cover. The line point intercept method provides a measure of percent cover of biotic and abiotic components of the benthos in a stratified random sampling design in hardbottom and coral reef habitats. Individual data collections: Gulf of Mexico: https://doi.org/10.7289/v5vd6wts Florida: https://doi.org/10.7289/v5xw4h4z Puerto Rico: https://doi.org/10.7289/v5pg1q23 US Virgin Islands: https://doi.org/10.7289/v5ww7fqk Occurrence GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type_2015-07-10.xml Observation GBIF Dataset Subtype Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_subtype.xml marine, harvested by OBIS This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License. https://ipt-obis.gbif.us/archive.do?r=noaa_ncrmp_benthic_assessment Portions of the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. -93.823 -64.4314 27.9224 17.6361 2013-07-08 2024-08-01 Reef coral phylum cnidaria asNeeded Erica Towle National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Conservation Program National Coral Reef Monitoring Program Coordinator erica.towle@noaa.gov For details see the Line Point-Intercept (LPI) Survey Protocol for the U.S. Caribbean and Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary: https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/archive/arc0091/0151818/2.2/data/0-data/NCRMP_FGB_2013-2015_Benthics/Data_Documentation/Protocols/NCRMP_Caribbean-GoM_Protocols_2015/NCRMP_LinePointIntercept_Protocol_Caribbean_FINAL_June_2015.pdf The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) provides a biennial ecological characterization at a broad spatial scale of general reef condition for reef fishes, corals and benthic habitat (i.e., fish species composition/density/size, benthic cover, and coral density/size/condition). Data collection occurs at stratified random sites where the sampling domain for each region (e.g., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary [FGBNMS]) is partitioned by habitat type and depth, sub-regional location (e.g., along-shelf position) and management zone. NCRMP will provide broader geographic context to supplement local monitoring efforts and studies of tropical reef ecosystems. Line point-intercept (LPI) sampling provides benthic cover estimates for ecologically important cover types/groups (e.g., macroalgae, turf algae, crustose coralline algae, corals, sponges, sand/sediment, etc.). This method is complementary to the NCRMP coral demographics sampling method that collects detailed information on scleractinian corals, including density, size and condition (percent mortality and bleaching) measurements. The goal of these surveys is to provide a quantification of percent cover of biotic and abiotic benthic components, using the LPI method in a stratified random sampling design in hardbottom and coral reef habitats in the U.S. Caribbean (U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) and FGBNMS. Surveys are concurrent with and along the same transect as fish surveys. For details see the Line Point-Intercept (LPI) Survey Protocol for the U.S. Caribbean and Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary: https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/archive/arc0091/0151818/2.2/data/0-data/NCRMP_FGB_2013-2015_Benthics/Data_Documentation/Protocols/NCRMP_Caribbean-GoM_Protocols_2015/NCRMP_LinePointIntercept_Protocol_Caribbean_FINAL_June_2015.pdf Erica Towle pointOfContact Coral reefs are among the most valuable ecosystems on earth, providing people with goods and services that include food, storm protection, and recreational opportunities. Despite their importance, coral reef ecosystems are in decline from a myriad of man-made and natural threats. In response, the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program established an integrated and focused monitoring effort with partners across the U.S.—the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). This program is a strategic framework for conducting sustained observations of biological, climatic, and socioeconomic indicators in U.S. states and territories. The resulting data provide a robust picture of the condition of U.S. coral reef ecosystems and the communities connected to them. NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program Coral reef ecosystems in U.S. states and territories. The goals of NCRMP monitoring are to: (1) develop consistent and comparable methods and standard operating procedures (SOPs), which detail specific field, laboratory, and/or analytical procedures and best practices, for all indicators (with periodic updates to reflect new technologies or logistical considerations); (2) develop and maintain strong partnerships with federal, state/territory, and academic partners; (3) collect scientifically sound, geographically comprehensive biological, climate, and socioeconomic data in U.S. coral reef areas; (4) deliver high‐quality data, data products, and tools to the coral reef conservation community provide context for interpreting results of localized monitoring; (5) provide periodic assessments of the status and trends of the nation’s coral reef ecosystems. 2022-04-13T13:56:50.370+00:00 dataset NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC), Groves S, Williams B, Sturm A (2025). NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program Coral Benthic Assessment Data. Version 1.9. United States Geological Survey. Occurrence dataset. https://ipt-obis.gbif.us/resource?r=noaa_ncrmp_benthic_assessment&v=1.9 6ce70eba-ffd8-48e3-ae1a-5e38b6da6b93/v1.9.xml