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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)

Metadata Updated: November 2, 2023

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.

Access & Use Information

License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Date 2023-03-15T01:22:17Z
Metadata Created Date December 4, 2020
Metadata Updated Date November 2, 2023
Reference Date(s) May 19, 2017 (publication), July 9, 2021 (revision)
Frequency Of Update asNeeded

Metadata Source

Harvested from NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions

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Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date 2023-03-15T01:22:17Z
Metadata Created Date December 4, 2020
Metadata Updated Date November 2, 2023
Reference Date(s) May 19, 2017 (publication), July 9, 2021 (revision)
Responsible Party (Point of Contact)
Contact Email
Guid gov.noaa.nodc:0162469
Access Constraints Cite as: Coral Reef Ecosystem Program; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (2017). 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). [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0162469. Accessed [date]., Use liability: NOAA and NCEI cannot provide any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of furnished data. Users assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose.
Bbox East Long -155.6884
Bbox North Lat 28.4187
Bbox South Lat -14.5593
Bbox West Long 144.626
Coupled Resource
Frequency Of Update asNeeded
Graphic Preview Description Preview graphic
Graphic Preview File https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/gfx?id=gov.noaa.nodc:0162469
Graphic Preview Type PNG
Harvest Object Id f3bb4355-e28a-4713-b50c-7e0729ed823f
Harvest Source Id c084a438-6f6b-470d-93e0-16aeddb9f513
Harvest Source Title NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/accessions
Licence accessLevel: Public
Lineage
Metadata Language eng
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[144.626, -14.5593], [-155.6884, -14.5593], [-155.6884, 28.4187], [144.626, 28.4187], [144.626, -14.5593]]]}
Progress completed
Spatial Data Service Type
Spatial Reference System
Spatial Harvester True
Temporal Extent Begin 2008-02-06
Temporal Extent End 2012-05-18

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