Benthic Cover Baseline for a Samoan Marine Protected Area

Benthic cover data provides a quantitative baseline for a 2.25 square kilometer no-take Marine Protected Area in Fagamalo, American Samoa. NOAA scientists from the Coral Reef Ecosystem Program generated the data in 2015 by analyzing photoquadrat images from 18 stratified sites. This dataset is intended for comparing future ecological change against this established 2015 condition.

Use Cases

• Assessing baseline percentages of coral, algae, and other benthic cover types within a protected area.
• Monitoring temporal change in reef composition by comparing future surveys against the 2015 data.
• Evaluating the ecological status of a specific MPA (Fagamalo) to inform management strategies.
• Correlating benthic community data with separate coral demography surveys conducted concurrently.

Strengths

• Data collection followed a structured protocol using random point analysis on photoquadrat images for quantitative accuracy.
• Surveys cover 18 randomly selected stratified sites, providing systematic spatial coverage within the MPA.
• Serves as a dedicated temporal baseline (2015) for a specific, legally designated marine protected area.

Limitations

• The specific column names, row count, and data license are not provided in the available metadata.
• Conflicting last update dates exist between platforms (2015-11-13 vs. 2026-03 05), suggesting potential metadata inconsistency.
• Dataset is limited to a single time point (2015), requiring additional surveys for change analysis.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP), collected for the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources.

Collection Method

Quantitative analysis of benthic photoquadrat images using random point projection and identification software.

Time Range

2015-10-26 to 2015-11-13

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:00:03.282811

Geography

Fagamalo, Tutuila, American Samoa (18 stratified sites within a 2.25 sq km MPA).