NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Ecosystem Sciences Division, National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Stratified random surveys (StRS) of reef fish in the U.S. Pacific Islands

OBIS and OBIS USA

The stationary point count (nSPC) method is used by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD; formerly the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division) to conduct reef fish surveys in the Hawaiian and Mariana Archipelagos, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas. The first iteration of the nSPC surveys were conducted as part of the Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) from 2008-2012. In 2013 the reef fish surveys, and Pacific RAMP, became part of the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP).

The nSPC method catalogs the diversity (species richness), abundance (numeric density) and biomass (fish mass per unit area) of diurnally active reef fish assemblages in shallow-water (less than 30 m) hard-bottom habitats. Visual estimates of benthic cover and topographic complexity are also recorded, with benthic organisms grouped into broad functional categories (e.g., 'Hard Coral', 'Macroalgae'). A stratified random sampling (StRS) design is employed to survey the coral reef ecosystems throughout the U.S.-Pacific regions. For all regions, the survey domain encompasses the majority of the mapped area of reef and hard bottom habitats and the stratification includes island, reef zone, and depth, with the exception of the Main Hawaiian Islands that includes habitat structure type as well. Sampling effort is allocated based on strata area.

Reef fish and benthic estimate data provided in this data set were primarily collected during ESD-led research cruises funded by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) as part of Pacific RAMP or NCRMP. Additionally, data collected during Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument led research cruises to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands from 2007 to 2017, and PIFSC annual Reef Fish Survey cruises from 2014 to 2016 in Guam, the main Hawaiian Islands, and American Samoa, respectively, are also included as these data are funded separately from but are complementary to the CRCP-funded data.

N/A

This dataset was downloaded from OBIS (https://obis.org/). The records for only marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles and rays and sharks were extracted. Records with no longitude/latitude or no date (eventDate) were excluded.
OBIS dataset page:
https://obis.org/dataset/2ae2a2bd-8412-405b-8a9f-b71adc41d4c5
Data Provider's dataset page:
https://www1.usgs.gov/obis-usa/ipt/resource?r=ncrmp_nspc_fish_pacific

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Internal ID
id	Record ID
dataset_id	Dataset ID
scientificname	Scientific name
vernacularname	Vernacular name
aphiaid	Aphia ID
taxonrank	taxononic rank
individualcount	Group size / individual count
eventdate	Event date (precision varies)
eventtime	Event time
decimallatitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
decimallongitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
coordinateprecision	Coordinate precision
catalognumber	Catalog number
collectioncode	Collection code
occurrencestatus	Occurrence status
basisofrecord	Basis of record (HumanObservation / MachineObservation)
modified	Date/time the record was modified
node_id	Node ID
occurrenceid	Occurrence ID
occurrenceremarks	Occurrence remarks
eventid	Event ID
institutioncode	Institution code
lifestage	Life stage
sex	Gender of the animal if known
species	Species by provider
datasetid	Dataset ID by provider
country	Country
locality	Location of ocean
waterbody	Details of ocean
dropped	Flag indicating the record was dropped (always false)
absence	Flag indicating the record represents the absence of the species (always false)
marine	Flag indicating the record is for marine life (always true)