Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program: Belt Transect for Demographics and Condition of Corals at U.S. Pacific Reefs from 2008-09-14 to 2012-05-19 (NCEI Accession 0163749)

The data described here result from benthic coral demographic surveys in the Hawaiian and Mariana Archipelagos, American Samoa, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas as part of NOAA's Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (Pacific RAMP). Adult colony surveys record morphology, colony size, partial mortality in two categories - old dead and recent dead, cause of recent dead partial mortality, and non-lesion forming condition including bleaching and disease.

The survey domain encompassed the majority of the mapped area of reef and hard bottom habitats in the 0-30 m depth range. Sites were surveyed using belt transects to collect adult coral colony metrics. These data provide information on adult coral abundance (density, proportion occurrence, and total colony abundance), size distribution, partial mortality, prevalence and abundance of recent mortality and cause, prevalence of disease and bleaching, and diversity.