NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment has conducted standardized surveys of reef fish, macro-invertebrates, and benthic composition in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands since 2000. This 2011 dataset from St. John, USVI, supports spatial management decisions by relating species distribution to underlying habitat maps and bathymetry. The work is part of a long-term effort to establish data collection standards for the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program.
Use Cases
- Modeling species distribution based on habitat maps and bathymetric models mentioned in the description
- Monitoring trends in reef fish abundance and distribution across the US Caribbean
- Evaluating the efficacy of marine zoning strategies based on 'hot spots' of species richness
- Establishing baselines for macro-invertebrate populations like conch, lobster, and Diadema
Strengths
- Data collection follows standardized protocols developed for the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program
- Sampling sites are randomly selected within stratified habitat maps to ensure coverage of the entire study region
- Field data is related back to nearshore benthic habitat maps created by NOAA in 2001
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
- Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA_NCEI
- Collection Method
- Standardized in-situ surveys of fish, macro-invertebrates, and benthic composition at randomly selected sites stratified from habitat maps.
- Time Range
- 2011 (with program starting in 2001)
- Geography
- St. John, US Virgin Islands (nearshore areas less than 100 ft depth)