National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Methodological Case Study for 'Downscaling Ecological Trends from the Spatially Randomized Datasets' in the Main Hawaiian Islands, 2005-07-14 to 2016-08-24 (NCEI Accession 0211127)

The data described here result from the application of a down-scaling method to NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) benthic cover data, in an attempt by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) to make NCRMP data maximally useful to reef managers.

ESD scientists took benthic cover data from the Main Hawaiian Islands from 2005-2016 and applied a statistical technique based on contiguous clustering and mixed model analysis to discover an optimal reporting sector for NCRMP data (Oliver et al. 2020). Specifically, clusters were identified based on NCRMP benthic cover data collected by ESD from 4 survey methods (towed diver, line point intercept, and photoquadrat surveys in which benthic images were analyzed either using CoralNet or CPCe) and then the optimal size and number of spatial sectors was assessed to generate reporting sector assignments that balanced minimal size against maximal ecological homogeneity and statistical power. These assignments are recorded in the dataset along with the source benthic cover observations, including live hard coral cover, soft coral cover, crustose coralline algae cover, macroalgal and turf algae cover, sediment cover, and all other categories are binned into "other".