Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program: Assessing and Monitoring Cryptic Reef Diversity of Colonizing Marine Invertebrates using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) Deployed at Coral Reef Sites across the U.S. Pacific from 2008-02-06 to 2012-05-18 (NCEI Accession 0162469)

To support a long-term program for sustainable management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems, from 2008, Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) have been deployed and/or recovered across the U.S. on Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (Pacific RAMP) cruises conducted at two to three year intervals by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC).

CREP partnered with other scientists from the Census of Marine Life (CoML) Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems (CReefs) to develop Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS). ARMS mimic the complexity of coral reefs to attract/collect colonizing invertebrates and provide a systematic, consistent, and comparable method to monitor cryptic reef diversity.

The key innovation of this method is that ARMS sample biodiversity over precisely the same surface area in the exact same manner. Thus, the use of ARMS is a systematic, consistent, and comparable method for monitoring the cryptobiota community overtime.

The data was gathered from the Hawaiian Archipelago, the Mariana Archipelago, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas between 2010 and 2012. At specific reef sites, divers enter the water and deploy and/or recover the ARMS unit. Each unit consists of 23 cm x 23 cm gray, type 1 PVC plates stacked in alternating series of 4 open and 4 obstructed layers and attached to a base plate of 35 cm x 45 cm which is affixed to the reef. They are designed to mimic the structural complexity of a reef and attract colonizing invertebrates.

Upon recovery, the ARMS unit is encapsulated, brought to the surface, and disassembled and processed onboard the research ship. Disassembled plates are photographed to document recruited sessile organisms and scraped clean and preserved in 95% ethanol for future DNA processing. Recruited motile organisms are sieved into 3 size fractions: 2 mm, 500 um, and 100 um. The 500 um and 100 um fraction is bulked and preserved in 95% ethanol for future DNA processing. The 2 mm fraction is sorted into morphospecies. These DNA sequencing data are not included in this dataset.

为支持珊瑚礁生态系统可持续管理与保护的长期项目，自2008年起，美国在太平洋礁石评估与监测计划（Pacific RAMP）巡航中，每隔两至三年，由美国国家海洋和大气管理局太平洋岛屿渔业科学中心（NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center，PIFSC）下的珊瑚礁生态系统项目（Coral Reef Ecosystem Program，CREP）部署和/或回收了自主珊瑚礁监测结构（Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures，ARMS）。CREP与海洋生物普查（Census of Marine Life，CoML）珊瑚礁生态系统普查（CReefs）的其他科学家合作，开发了自主珊瑚礁监测结构（ARMS）。ARMS模拟珊瑚礁的复杂性，以吸引/收集定居的无脊椎动物，并提供一种系统、一致且可比的方法来监测隐秘的珊瑚礁生物多样性。

该方法的创新之处在于，ARMS以精确相同的方式在同一表面区域内采样生物多样性。因此，ARMS的使用是一种系统、一致且可比的方法，用于长期监测隐生物群落。

数据收集于2010年至2012年间的夏威夷群岛、马里亚纳群岛、美属萨摩亚和太平洋偏远岛屿地区。在特定的珊瑚礁地点，潜水员下水并部署和/或回收ARMS单元。每个单元由23厘米x23厘米的灰色类型1PVC板组成，交替堆叠成4层开放和4层封闭的系列，并固定在35厘米x45厘米的底板上，该底板附着在珊瑚礁上。它们被设计成模仿珊瑚礁的结构复杂性，以吸引定居的无脊椎动物。

回收后，ARMS单元被封装，带到水面，并在研究船上拆卸和处理。拆卸的板子被拍照以记录招募的固着生物，并被刮干净并保存在95%乙醇中，以备未来的DNA处理。招募的可移动生物被筛分成三个大小等级：2毫米、500微米和100微米。500微米和100微米的等级被混合并保存在95%乙醇中，以备未来的DNA处理。2毫米的等级被分类为形态物种。这些DNA测序数据不包括在本数据集中。