Guam Long-term Coral Reef Monitoring Program Reef Fish Surveys FY2014

The Government of Guam's Long-term Coral Reef Monitoring Program, coordinated by the University of Guam Marine Lab, involves the collection of data for a suite of coral reef ecosystem health parameters at several high priority reef sites around the island of Guam, including Tumon Bay, East Agana Bay, Piti Bay, Western Shoals, Achang Reef Flat Marine Preserve, and the Eastern seaward slope near Cocos Island . Data are collected annually or biennially by a team of highly-trained field biologists from the NOAA Pacific Islands Regional Office, the University of Guam Marine Lab, and with occasional assistance by staff from other agencies. Fish are a culturally and economically valuable resource for the island of Guam (van Buekering et al., 2007 (in recognition of the high value of this resource, reef fish surveys are a key component of the Guam Long-term Coral Reef Monitoring Program. Reef fish assessment surveys have been conducted at high priority reef sites around Guam since August 2010. The surveys are carried out at numerous sampling stations within each monitoring site, the locations of which were generated randomly using a Geographic Information System and the relevant bathymetric and benthic habitat data. A split-panel approach is currently used for the sampling design, with half of all sampling stations in a given site being fixed and half re-randomized every visit or every other visit. The monitoring team uses a Stationary Point Count Method, adapted from Ault et al. (2006) and NOAA Fisheries, Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (Williams et al., 2011), to conduct the reef fish surveys. These monitoring data on reef fish communities provide results on fish density, biomass, and diversity; allow for exploration of community structure by functional group and size structure; and can be used to detect changes in fish communities over time.

                                            {
  "fn": "Guam Field Office, Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:valerie.brown@noaa.gov"
}
                                        

                                            []
                                        

                                            [
  "CoRIS_Metadata",
  "Pacific Islands Regional Office",
  "1221",
  "Marine Ecosystem",
  "Coral Reef Conservation Program",
  "Reef Fishes",
  "Coral Reef Ecosystem",
  "Fish Biomass",
  "Guam",
  "Long-term Monitoring Program",
  "Fish Species Richness",
  "Guam",
  "194",
  "NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Coral Coordinator - Guam",
  "Numeric Data Sets > Biology",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral reef ecology",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef monitoring and assessment",
  "EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef monitoring and assessment > Rapid assessment studies",
  "Marianas",
  "Guam",
  "OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > Western Pacific Ocean > Guam > Guam (13N144E0000)",
  "COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > Guam > Guam (13N144E0000)",
  "Guam"
]
                                        

                                            []
                                        

                                            {
  "name": "Habitat Conservation Division, Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}