AGRRA database improvements for research and management

Final Report

Since 1997 the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) Program has provided snapshot? characterizations of a number of structurally or functionally important, benthic and fish indicators on tropical western Atlantic coral reefs. Its protocols are based on logistically simple, non-fixed, transect-based visual surveys for reasons of speed and economy. Originally designed and implemented as a research tool primarily by university faculty and graduate students, the AGRRA approach has been widely adopted or adapted by governmental, NGO, and field educational organizations variously active in The Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Little Cayman, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Turks and Caicos Islands, etc. Processed data from AGRRA-sponsored expeditions have been posted online at the AGRRA web site for several years (www.agrra.org) and are updated at intervals as new surveys or indicator products are made available, and as errors or omissions in the data are corrected. Initial releases consisted of an Access database and Excel files respectively summarizing the algal, stony coral and fish indicators by transect, site, and zones within batches (a batch being all sites surveyed during an AGRRA expedition).

FY2006 CRCP Project ID 1413; Project Title: General Coral Conservation Grants; Principal Investigator: Andy Bruckner. Grant No. NA06NMF4630110

NA06NMF4630110