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Predicted Habitat Suitability for Montipora in the Au'au Channel Region

Published by Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC), Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2012-06-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
This raster denotes predicted habitat suitability for Montipora in the Auau Channel region. Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) modeling software was used to create this ensemble model, which is an average of 10 model replicates. MaxEnt works by analyzing the distribution of environmental variables where species are present, so it can find other areas that meet all of the same environmental constraints. Georeferenced records containing information about mesophotic coral occurrence and environmental predictors describing the seafloors depth, vertical structure, available light, surface temperature, currents and distance from shoreline were used to train MaxEnt. Model performance and accuracy were assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Area Under the Curve (AUC) and a randomly chosen, spatially independent data subset. The average test AUC for this predictive ensemble model was 0.97, and the producers accuracy of this ensemble predictive model was 86.1% (when the habitat suitability threshold = 0.15). The habitat suitability threshold of 0.15 represents the sum of the maximum ROC sensitivity and specificity values. Extreme care should be taken when selecting a habitat suitability threshold because it affects the probability of correctly identifying the presence and absence of mesophotic corals. For more information describing how this predictive surface was developed and its limitations, please see the following website: https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/modeling-mesophotic-coral-distributions-auau-channel-hawaii/

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CoRIS_Metadata 467 Benthic Habitat Mapping and Characterization in the Pacific Islands Region Map Images > Habitats EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Photic Zone Corals EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral Reef Ecology > Habitats EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral Reef Ecology > Hard Coral Cover EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Aquatic Habitat > Reef Habitat EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Mapping EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef Monitoring and Assessment > Mapping > Habitat Mapping EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Marine Protected Areas Bathymetry Multibeam sonar Geographic Information > Reef Locations Map Images > Coral Mapping Map Images > Habitats Numeric Data Sets > Habitats Visual Images > Corals biota (002) environment (007) oceans (014) Maui Main Hawaiian Islands United States of America OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > Central Pacific Ocean > Hawaiian Islands (21N157W0027) OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > Central Pacific Ocean > Hawaiian Islands > Auau Channel > AuAu Channel (20N156W0027) OCEAN BASIN > Pacific Ocean > Central Pacific Ocean > Hawaiian Islands > Maui Island > Maui Island (20N156W0004) COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > Hawaii > Maui > Maui Island (20N156W0004) COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > Hawaiian Islands (21N157W0027) COUNTRY/TERRITORY > United States of America > Hawaii > Auau Channel > AuAu Channel (20N156W0027) MHI

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