Southeast Florida Coral Reef Carbonate Budget Surveys 2014

Four major reef sites in the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative region were surveyed over several weeks in late 2014. The dataset contains census-based carbonate budget data, including benthic cover and bioerosion rates, collected by NOAA NCEI. Measurements were used to assess the region's sensitivity to ocean acidification.

Use Cases

• Modeling calcium carbonate budget sensitivity to ocean acidification using site-specific benthic cover and bioerosion data.
• Comparing reef health metrics like macrobioerosion and microbioerosion rates across the four surveyed sites: Emerald, Oakland Ridge, Barracuda, and Pillars.
• Estimating parrotfish erosion contributions by analyzing data from the ten parrotfish surveys conducted at each site.
• Analyzing spatial variability in reef composition by examining transect survey data quantifying benthic cover across six 10-meter transects per site.

Strengths

• Data collected at four distinct reef sites, enabling spatial comparison.
• Surveys include multiple metrics: benthic cover, macrobioerosion, microbioerosion, and parrotfish erosion.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is limited to a single seasonal snapshot from September to October 2014.
• Sample size is constrained to four primary sites and six transects per site.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI Accession 0156913).

Collection Method

Field surveys based on Perry et al. 2012 methodology, including transect surveys and parrotfish surveys.

Time Range

2014-09-29 to 2014-10-17

Freshness

Data is from 2014; no update frequency specified.

Geography

Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative (SEFCRI) region, specifically sites: Emerald, Oakland Ridge, Barracuda, and Pillars.