Description
The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP)’s biological sampling provides a biennial ecological characterization of general reef condition for reef fishes, corals, and benthic habitat (i.e., fish species composition, density, and size; coral species composition, density, size, condition; and benthic community cover) at a broad spatial scale. In the U.S. Atlantic, NCRMP biological sampling includes coral reef and hardbottom habitats in Florida, Flower Garden Banks, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). NCRMP Fish surveys are conducted using the Reef Visual Census (RVC) stationary point count method (Brandt et al. 2009). Fish surveys are conducted at all NCRMP biological survey sites and may occur concurrently with Coral Demographic/Benthic Assessment surveys. These data are fish observations from the RVC in the waters of Puerto Rico in 2016, 2019, and 2021.
Data were downloaded from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (https://grunt.sefsc.noaa.gov/rvc_analysis20/) and standardized to Darwin Core for publication through OBIS-USA. Taxa that could not be aligned to the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) were filtered out. Data includes water visibility and fish length measurements.
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 1,915 records.
2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Blondeau J, Formel S (2023). Puerto Rico Reef Visual Census (RVC) 2016 - 2021. Version 1.5. United States Geological Survey. Samplingevent dataset. https://ipt-obis.gbif.us/resource?r=puertoricovisualreefcensus&v=1.5
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is United States Geological Survey. To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: a050fb15-1ab6-4d29-b444-b7b8ae576499. United States Geological Survey publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF-US.
Keywords
CORAL REEF; FISH; FLORIDA KEYS; IOOS; National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration; Occurrence
Contacts
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Metadata Provider ●
- Processor
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7418-1244
- Distributor
Geographic Coverage
Coastal waters of Puerto Rico
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [17.862, -67.946], North East [18.472, -65.169] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
Reef fish
| Class | Teleostei (Teleostei), Elasmobranchii (Elasmobranchii) |
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Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2016-05-29 / 2021-12-24 |
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Project Data
National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) monitoring of coral reef ecosystems focuses on status and changes in the benthic community, with emphasis on the reef-building corals and on the assemblages of reef fishes that utilize the coral reef environment. The data included here are observation specific to the coastal waters of Puerto Rico.
| Title | National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) |
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| Funding | The Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 (CRCA 2000) authorized a national program that includes “monitoring [and] assessment . . . that benefits the understanding, sustainable use, and long-term conservation of coral reefs and coral reef ecosystems.” Since 2001, NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program has produced sound scientific information on coral reef ecosystems under the legislation’s broad mandate of “assess and characterize U.S. coral reefs.” In 2010, the Coral Program began to develop the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) as it exists today to ensure consistent and standardized monitoring efforts. |
| Study Area Description | The data included here are observation specific to the coastal waters of Puerto Rico. However, the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program surveys shallow water (0-30m) tropical coral reef ecosystems in the many priority geographic areas. See Miller et al. 2011 for more detail. |
| Design Description | For detail, see: Towle, Erica K., et al. "National coral reef monitoring plan." (2021) https://doi.org/10.25923/fqkq-w497 |
The personnel involved in the project:
Sampling Methods
For detailed Standard Operating Procedures, see: Brandt, Marilyn E., et al. 'A cooperative multi-agency reef fish monitoring protocol for the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem.' (2009) https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/546
| Study Extent | National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) monitoring of coral reef ecosystems focuses on status and changes in the benthic community, with emphasis on the reef-building corals and on the assemblages of reef fishes that utilize the coral reef environment. The data included here are observation specific to the coastal waters of Puerto Rico. |
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| Quality Control | For detailed Standard Operating Procedures, see: Brandt, Marilyn E., et al. 'A cooperative multi-agency reef fish monitoring protocol for the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem.' (2009) https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/546 |
Method step description:
- For detailed Standard Operating Procedures, see: Brandt, Marilyn E., et al. 'A cooperative multi-agency reef fish monitoring protocol for the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem.' (2009) https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/546
Bibliographic Citations
- Towle, Erica K., et al. "National coral reef monitoring plan." (2021). https://doi.org/10.25923/fqkq-w497 https://doi.org/10.25923/fqkq-w497
- Smith, S.G., et al. 2011, Multispecies survey design for assessing reef-fish stocks, spatially explicit management performance, and ecosystem condition. Fisheries Research 109(2011)25-41 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2011.01.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2011.01.012
- Brandt, M. E., et. al. 2009, A Cooperative Multi-agency Reef Fish Monitoring Protocol for the Florida Keys Coral Reef Ecosystem. https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/546 https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/546
- Miller, J., et al. "Coral Reef Conservation Program mapping achievements and unmet needs. US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration." Coral Reef Conservation Program (2011). https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/650
Additional Metadata
| Purpose | NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program administers a gold-standard, national coral reef monitoring program that covers all U.S. coral reefs. Known as the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program, it has followed a standard, but regionally-tailored approach since 2013. The monitoring effort provides comprehensive information about the current and future state of the nation's coral reefs by integrating benthic, fish, climate, and socioeconomic data. This information is used to guide conservation projects and document the effectiveness of restoration efforts. |
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| Alternative Identifiers | https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/64484ae4d34ee8d4aded4361 |
| a050fb15-1ab6-4d29-b444-b7b8ae576499 | |
| https://ipt-obis.gbif.us/resource?r=puertoricovisualreefcensus |