Ecosystem Sciences Division Standard Operating Procedures: Data Collection for Rapid Ecological Assessment Benthic Surveys, 2018 Update

This 2018 document update is intended as a reference and provides guidelines for training, sampling, and data entry for the monitoring of coral populations and benthic communities as part of the Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (Pacific RAMP) led by the Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). The standard operating procedures (SOP) outlined in this document apply to the Pacific RAMP surveys that ESD and its partners conducted in 2018 on the coral reef ecosystems of American Samoa and the Pacific Remote Island Areas Marine National Monument (Palmyra and Kingman Atolls, and Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands), As part of ESD’s ecosystem assessment and long term monitoring efforts, coral colonies and the benthic community functional groups are surveyed at Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) sites selected using a stratified random sampling design. The details of the methods employed are outlined in this report.