Mollusks were sorted from samples of shell hash (obtained as bycatch during NOAA-sponsored studies of larval and juvenile fish distribution), and analyzed to gain qualitative insights on species composition, distribution and habitat affinities of the molluscan fauna on the continental ...

Hawaii's coastal marine resources have declined dramatically over the past 100 years due to multiple anthropogenic stressors including overfishing, coastal development, pollution, overuse, invasive species and climate change. It is now becoming evident that ecosystem-based management, in the form of ...

This study assessed morphological variation of the depth-generalist coral Montastraea cavernosa across shallow and mesophotic coral ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) using thirteen corallite metrics. While corallite structure differed significantly across sites, we observed that mean corallite diameters ...

The Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument (VICRNM) was created to expand the protection of the marine ecosystems around St. John. Monument boundaries were not designed using ecological criteria, but were instead the result of historical land ownership and the ...

The NCCOS Regional Ecological Assessments (REA) and NOAA National Benthic Inventory (NBI) include observations of water quality, sediment quality, fish and shellfish tissue chemical contaminants, and benthic infaunal abundance obtained from studies conducted since 1991 by NOAA and partnering institutions ...

The purpose of this manual is to provide a framework for the assessment of ecosystem health that may be adapted, or used in whole or part for application to other regions. Methods are provided for all aspects from sampling design ...

This document contains the results and analysis from the fourth national coastal assessment, published in 2012 ...

The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) is a strategic plan developed by NOAAs Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) to monitor all U.S. coral reef ecosystems with standardized methodologies (http://www.coris.noaa.gov/monitoring/). The primary monitoring objectives include: Develop consistent survey designs, field ...

The Benthic Assessment (BA) is the first of two benthic surveys conducted in Florida as part of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). Benthic Assessment provides benthic cover estimates for ecologically important cover types/groups (e.g., macroalgae, turf algae, crustose ...

This coral demographics protocol was devised to provide additional, species-specific insight (and ‘signal magnitude’) for corals than is provided by percent cover. Specifics of the protocol are based closely on other long-established monitoring programs in the Atlantic region, including Atlantic ...