National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Assessment of coral reef benthic communities in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Data provided in this collection were gathered within the FGBNMS as part of NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)-led missions in collaboration with partners at NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries FGBNMS, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Southeast Fisheries Science Center and Texas A&M. This benthic data collection for the ongoing National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) consists of two survey types: the Line Point-Intercept (LPI) method and the Coral Demographic method.

The LPI method provides a measure of percent cover of biotic and abiotic components of the benthos in a stratified random sampling design in hardbottom and coral reef habitats. LPI surveys are concurrent with and along the same transect as fish surveys. The coral demographics protocol provides more detailed and species-specific insight (‘signal magnitude’) for coral populations than is provided by percent cover.