Data and Reports

Explore our library of NCCOS Technical Memos and various data sets. Filter by the type of publication, research category, region or contact. To access data and reports predating 2017, please visit the Legacy Publications Explorer.

Coral reef ecosystems of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands: Spatial and temporal patterns in fish and benthic communities (2001-2009)

This technical memorandum contains analysis of nine years of data (2001-2009) from in situ fish belt transect and benthic habitat quadrat surveys conducted in and around the Virgin Islands National Park (VIIS) and the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument (VICR). The purpose of this document is to: 1) Quantify ...

Coral reef restoration monitoring guide: Methods to evaluate restoration success from local to ecosystem scales

This Guide should be used to measure and describe the progress of coral restoration projects towards meeting restoration goals. The CRC Monitoring Working Group has also developed a Coral Restoration Database and Evaluation Tool to be complementary to this Guide and used together. The Coral Restoration Database allows the input ...

Correlation and Prediction of Land-Based Pollution Impacts on Sediment Contaminant Concentrations within National Estuarine Research Reserves of the Southeastern US and Selected Chesapeake Bay Watersheds

OpenNSPECT is a raster-based GIS model that estimates runoff, pollution and erosion in a GIS setting. NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) has conducted a series of regional ecological assessments throughout many estuarine and coastal shelf areas of the southeastern U.S. aimed at evaluating condition of living resources ...

Corrigendum to "Status, Causes and Controls of Cyanobacterial Blooms in Lake Erie"

The authors regret that, during analyses of various data sets, we inadvertently used TKN (Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen) in place of TN (Total Nitrogen) for the Maumee River tributary. We now present the corrected data from the original Fig. 5 (as Fig. 5 (corrected) in this article) which demonstrates that our ...

Council Monitoring and Assessment Program (CMAP) Compilation of Existing Habitat and Water Quality Monitoring, and Mapping Assessments for the Gulf of Mexico Region

The Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (RESTORE Act) was signed into law on July 6, 2012. The RESTORE Act calls for a regional approach to restoring the long-term health of the valuable natural ecosystem and economy of the Gulf Coast ...

Council Monitoring and Assessment Program (CMAP): Inventory of Existing Habitat and Water Quality Monitoring, and Mapping Metadata for the Gulf of Mexico Programs

Under the Resources and Ecosystem Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012 (RESTORE Act), the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (RESTORE Council or Council ) is required to report on the progress of funded projects and programs. Systematic monitoring of restoration at the ...

Coupling centennial-scale shoreline change to sea-level rise and coastal morphology in the Gulf of Mexico using a Bayesian network

Predictions of coastal evolution driven by episodic and persistent processes associated with storms and relative sea-level rise (SLR) are required to test our understanding, evaluate our predictive capability, and to provide guidance for coastal management decisions. Previous work demonstrated that the spatial variability of long-term shoreline change can be predicted ...

Coupling ecology and GIS to evaluate efficacy of Marine Protected Areas in Hawaii

In order to properly determine the efficacy of marine protected areas (MPAs), a seascape perspective that integrates ecosystem elements at the appropriate ecological scale is necessary. Over the past four decades, Hawaii has developed a system of 11 Marine Life Conservation Districts (MLCDs) to conserve and replenish marine resources around ...

Cruise report : assessment of ecological condition and stressor impacts within Great Lakes region areas of concern (AOCs) : Ashtabula River and Milwaukee estuary

This cruise report is a summary of a field survey conducted within two Great Lakes Region Areas of Concern (AOCs), Ashtabula River and Milwaukee Estuary, August 18 – 25, 2012. Synoptic sampling of multiple ecological indicators was conducted in the benthos and the water column at each of 30 stations ...

Cruise report for deepwater sediment sampling: Cruise M/V IRISH : Leg 1, 29 May to 10 June 2014, to assess potential benthic impacts from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill

To meet the objectives of the Deep Benthic Work Plan Addendum, a cruise was conducted to assess potential effects of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill on deep-sea (>200 m) sediments and resident benthic fauna. Leg 1 of the cruise was conducted on the M/V IRISH, 29 May - 10 ...

Cruise Report for Patterns in Deep-Sea Corals Expedition 2016: NOAA ship Shearwater SW-16-08

The 2016 Patterns in Deep-Sea Corals expedition set out aboard the NOAA Ship Shearwater in August to study the distribution, ecology, and health of deep-water (30-300 m) gorgonian corals in response to the 2015 El Niño event. The research team consisted of staff from NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean ...

Cruise Report for Patterns in Deep-Sea Corals Expedition: NOAA ship Bell M. Shimada SH-15-03

Less than 50% of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary seafloor has been mapped using multibeam echosounders to produce habitat characterizations at a map resolution suitable for resource management. This is important because deep-sea coral and sponge communities are known to occur within the Sanctuary. Mapping activities and benthic survey ...

Cruise report: Regional assessment of ecosystem condition and stressor impacts along the northeastern Gulf of Mexico shelf

This cruise report is a summary of a field survey conducted along the continental shelf of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM), encompassing 70,062 square kilometers of productive marine habitats located between the Mississippi Delta and Tampa Bay, August 13 – 21, 2010 on NOAA Ship Nancy Foster Cruise NF-10-09-RACOW ...

Cruise report: Regional assessment of ecosystem condition and stressor impacts along the northwestern Gulf of Mexico shelf

The overall purpose of the survey was to collect data to assess the status of ecosystem condition and potential stressor impacts throughout the region, based on these various indicators and corresponding management thresholds, and to provide this information as a baseline for determining how such conditions may be changing with ...

Cruise Report: Spring 2006 Survey of Ecological Conditions of the U.S. Middle Atlantic Bight, NOAA Ship Nancy Foster NF-06-06-NCCOS

This cruise report is a summary of a field survey conducted in coastal-ocean waters of the Mid-Atlantic Bight from Nags Head, North Carolina to Cape Cod, Massachusetts and from approximately 1 nautical mile (nm) of shore seaward to the shelf break (100 m). The survey was conducted May 12 - ...

Cruise report: Spring 2007 survey of ecological conditions along the continental shelf off Florida from Anclote Key to West Palm Beach, NOAA ship Nancy Foster Cruise NF-07-08-NCCOS (May 15 - May 28, 2007)

This cruise report is a summary of a field survey conducted in coastal-ocean waters off Florida from Anclote Key to West Palm Beach and from approximately 1 nautical mile (nm) offshore seaward to the shelf break (100 m). The survey was conducted May 15-May 28, 2007 on NOAA Ship NANCY ...

Cruise Report: Summer 2008 Ecological Assessment of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

This cruise report is a summary of a field survey conducted within the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS), located between Cape Cod and Cape Ann at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay. The survey was conducted June 14 - June 21, 2008 on NOAA Ship Nancy Foster Cruise NF-08-09-CCEHBR. Multiple ...

Cruise Report: Summer 2009 Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve Ecological Characterization

This cruise report is a summary of a field survey conducted within the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve (SINERR), located on the Georgia coastline, June 7 - June 13, 2009. Multiple indicators of ecological condition and human dimensions were sampled synoptically at each of 30 stations throughout SINERR using ...

Cyclonic activity in the eastern Gulf of Mexico: characterization from along-track altimetry and in situ drifter trajectories

The shedding sequence of the Loop Current (LC) inside the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is strongly influenced by cyclonic frontal eddies around its edge. Along-track altimetry data, analyzed based on a wavelet decomposition to provide estimates of individual cyclones’ diameter, amplitude and relative vorticity, and in situ surface drifter data ...

Deep Coral and Associated Species Taxonomy and Ecology (DeepCAST) II Expedition report

The Deep Coral & Associated Species Taxonomy & Ecology (DeepCAST) II Expedition explored depths below the Meso-American Reef in Roatán, Honduras from 21- 28 May 2011. The team made six submersible dives between 1200 and 2200 feet deep (365 and 670 meters), conducting photo and video transects to estimate coral ...

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