Since 2015, the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center has collected benthic images from coral reef climate stations across American Samoa. SCUBA divers photographed reef sites at 1-meter intervals along 15-meter transects, generating 30 photographs per survey site. These images are analyzed to estimate benthic cover, taxonomic composition, and generic richness.
Use Cases
- Monitoring coral reef benthic cover changes based on standardized photoquadrat surveys
- Analyzing benthic community taxonomic composition from high-resolution reef photographs
- Assessing coral reef health and resilience at climate monitoring stations
- Tracking changes in coral generic richness over time from image-derived data
Strengths
- Images collected at permanent climate stations established at north, south, east, and west points around islands
- Standardized protocol with 30 photographs generated per survey site along 15-meter transects
- Data collection part of NOAA's ongoing National Coral Reef Monitoring Program
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
- Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to datagov
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Ecosystem Sciences Division
- Collection Method
- SCUBA divers conducted photoquadrat surveys at permanent reef sites using measuring tapes and reference stakes.
- Time Range
- Since 2015
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-14 23:05:10.534113; freshness should be verified
- Geography
- American Samoa