National Coral Reef Monitoring Program - Assessment of fish and coral reef communities in Puerto Rico from 2014-05-19 to 2014-12-03 (NCEI Accession 0131260)

• Main Author: Randy Clark
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: NOAA NCEI Environmental Data Archive 2015
• Subjects: DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NODC > National Oceanographic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce; DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce; 0131260; 131260; BENTHIC SPECIES; BENTHIC SPECIES - TAXA COUNTS; CORAL; CORAL - SPECIES IDENTIFICATION; FISH - CORAL REEF; FISH SPECIES; swimmer/diver; visual analysis; visual observation; in situ; model output; US DOC; NOAA; NOS; National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science; Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment; Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP); CORAL REEF STUDIES; National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP); Caribbean Sea; North Atlantic Ocean; oceanography; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/{423EE325-ABE5-41C2-A454-26C6B7BCEC9B}

The National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan (NCRMP) is a framework for conducting sustained observations of biological, climate, and socioeconomic indicators at 10 priority coral reefs across the U.S. and its territories. This integrated approach will consolidate monitoring of coral reefs under a uniform method in the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. NCRMP is funded by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and supported by NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) and many other partners. NCCOS is co-leading biological monitoring missions with NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) to gather data on fish populations and coral reef communities in the U.S. Caribbean, Florida, and the Gulf of Mexico. Each year, our scientists work closely with CRCP and local partners to collect biological data from thousands of strategically selected sites. We then use innovative analysis techniques to develop products that give fellow scientists, managers, decision makers and the public a better understanding of a region’s resources and how they are changing over time. The biological component of 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 is partitioned by habitat type and depth, sub-regional location (e.g., along-shelf position) and management zone. Data provided in this data set were collected around Puerto Rico as part of an NCCOS-led mission in collaboration with partners at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Puerto Rico Department of Marine Sciences, HJR Reefscaping, and University of the Virgin Islands.