Ault, Jerald S.; Smith, Steven G.; Luo, Jiangang; Grove, Laura Jay; Johnson, Matthew W.; Blondeau, Jeremiah Blondeau

Refinement of the Southern Florida Reef Tract Benthic Habitat Map With Habitat Use Patterns of Reef Fish Species

2020

University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science; NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center; NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program

"The benthic habitat map for the southern Florida coral reef ecosystem provides the critical infrastructure for: (i) large-scale baseline ecosystem monitoring surveys of fishes, corals, and macroinvertebrates and their habitats; (ii) ecological understanding of animal use of habitats and evaluation of the efficacy of spatial fishery management strategies (e.g., no-take marine reserves); and (iii) habitat-based fish abundance at length data for the entire reeffish community (exploited and non-targeted) with high spatial resolution for use in multi-species stock assessment models. Habitats are currently classified according to a qualitative, descriptive schemee.g., patch reefs, reef pavement, reef rubble, etc.at a minimum resolution of 100 x 100 m map units (i.e., grid cells). At this scale, monitoring costs increase and usability is limited because the ability to discriminate among highly productive habitats is reduced. Recently, highresolution remote-sensed mapping products for bathymetry have become available for the southern Florida coral reef tract. Concurrently, analytical methods utilizing these mapping products have been developed to derive quantitative metrics of benthic characteristics, e.g., reef complexity, etc., which enable more refined classification of reef habitats." The project goal was to develop a refined benthic habitat map for the southern Florida reef tract based on quantitative habitat metrics at a spatial scale of 50 x 50 m map units. The project was a collaboration between scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (Drs. Jerry Ault, Steve Smith, and Jiangang Luo) and NOAAs Southeast Fisheries Science Center (Drs. Jay Grove and Matt Johnson, and Mr. Jeremiah Blondeau).

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

FY2020 CRCP Project ID 31242; Project Title: Refinement of Benthic Habitat Map for South Florida Reef Tract with habitat use patterns of reef fish species; Principal Investigator: Jay Grove