CREMP: Coral Reef Monitoring in the Florida Keys

CREMP provides annual monitoring data on benthic cover and coral diversity from 109 stations at 37 sites in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Dry Tortugas. The dataset, collected via underwater videography and species inventories from 1996 through 2008, tracks temporal changes in major taxa like stony corals, octocorals, sponges, and macroalgae. It supports analysis of long-term trends for specific coral species and reef health indicators.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in percent cover of stony corals, octocorals, sponges, and macroalgae based on annual monitoring.
• Assessing coral species richness and the incidence of coral conditions across fixed monitoring sites.
• Comparing reef health between the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas regions over a decadal scale.
• Modeling population trends for specific coral species complexes like Montastraea cavernosa and Porites astreoides.

Strengths

• Provides a long-term time series with annual observations spanning up to 13 years (1996-2008).
• Data collection follows a consistent methodology of underwater videography and timed inventories at fixed sites.
• Covers a substantial spatial scale with data from 109 stations across 37 distinct reef sites.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as column names, row count, and specific file formats are not provided in the available sources.
• The dataset's temporal coverage ends in 2008, limiting analysis of recent reef conditions.
• Sources lack information on the last update, raising questions about ongoing maintenance.

Provenance

Source

University of Georgia, authored by James W. Porter.

Collection Method

Underwater videography and timed coral species inventories conducted annually at fixed monitoring stations.

Time Range

1996-2008 (Florida Keys), 1999-2008 (Dry Tortugas)

Geography

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Dry Tortugas, USA.