Heenan, A.; Williams I.D.; Acoba, T.; DesRochers, A.; Kosaki, R.K.; Kanemura, T.; Nadon, M.O.; Brainard, R.E.

Long-term monitoring of coral reef fish assemblages in the Western central pacific

2017

Scientific Data

4

170176

"Throughout the tropics, coral reef ecosystems, which are critically important to people, have been greatly altered by humans. Differentiating human impacts from natural drivers of ecosystem state is essential to effective management. Here we present a dataset from a large-scale monitoring program that surveys coral reef fish assemblages and habitats encompassing the bulk of the US-affiliated tropical Pacific, and spanning wide gradients in both natural drivers and human impact. Currently, this includes >5,500 surveys from 39 islands and atolls in Hawaii (including the main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) and affiliated geo-political regions of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the Pacific Remote Islands Areas. The dataset spans 20102017, during which time, each region was visited at least every three years, and ~5001,000 surveys performed annually. This standardised dataset is a powerful resource that can be used to understand how human, environmental and oceanographic conditions influence coral reef fish community structure and function, providing a basis for research to support effective management outcomes."

10.1038/sdata.2017.176

FY2017; CRCP Project ID: 743; Project Title: National Coral Reef Monitoring Program; Principal Investigator: Justine Kimball National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) Implementation (Biological Monitoring)