http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset/893615
eng; USA
utf8
dataset
Highest level of data collection, from a common set of sensors or instrumentation, usually within the same research project
Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)
Unavailable
508-289-2009
WHOI MS#36
Woods Hole
MA
02543
USA
info@bco-dmo.org
http://www.bco-dmo.org
Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
For questions regarding this resource, please contact BCO-DMO via the email address provided.
pointOfContact
2023-04-11
ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data
ISO 19115-2:2009(E)
Identity and heights of Octocoral species found on transects at 6 sites on the south shore of St John, U.S. Virgin Islands in 2021 and 2022
2025-10-03
publication
2025-10-03
revision
Marine Biological Laboratory/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library (MBLWHOI DLA)
2025-10-06
publication
https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.893615.1
Howard Lasker
State University of New York at Buffalo
principalInvestigator
Peter J. Edmunds
California State University Northridge
principalInvestigator
Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)
Unavailable
508-289-2009
WHOI MS#36
Woods Hole
MA
02543
USA
info@bco-dmo.org
http://www.bco-dmo.org
Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
For questions regarding this resource, please contact BCO-DMO via the email address provided.
publisher
Cite this dataset as: Lasker, H., Edmunds, P. J. (2025) Identity and heights of Octocoral species found on transects at 6 sites on the south shore of St John, U.S. Virgin Islands in 2021 and 2022. Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). (Version 1) Version Date 2025-10-03 [if applicable, indicate subset used]. doi:10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.893615.1 [access date]
Methods and Sampling: <p>To investigate community dynamics of octocorals on Caribbean coral reefs, transect surveys were conducted at 6 sites on the south shore of St John, within the Virgin Islands National Park during the summers of 2021 and 2022.&nbsp; Depending on the site, 3 to 6 transects were established.&nbsp;All sites were located at 6 to 9 meters depth and samples were collected by SCUBA from small boats. The identity and heights of all arborescent octocorals greater than or equal to 5 centimeters were recorded from 1 square meter quadrats on the transects.&nbsp; The position of colonies relative to the site, meter on the transect, and side of the quadrat are included.</p>
<p>Censuses at sites Grootpan, Europa, and Tektite were based on 50-meter x 10-meter areas that were arbitrarily selected and permanently marked with stainless steel eyebolts at the corners of the sites. A total of six transect lines, also marked with eyebolts, were laid out at 10 m intervals. At Booby Rock, a 50-meter line running parallel to the approximately 7-meter depth contour was established, and survey transects (3 in 2021 and 6 in 2022) were positioned at random points along the line.&nbsp; All octocorals present in 1 x 1-meter quadrats along the 10-meter long transects were identified and their heights were measured. Small branch tip samples were collected from colonies that could not be identified in the field.&nbsp; Sclerites were digested from those colonies with a commercial bleach solution and sclerites were observed with a compound scope for identification. Octocoral adults were defined as individuals greater than or equal to 5 centimeters in height, with height determined to the nearest centimeter.</p>
Funding provided by NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) Award Number: OCE-1756381 Award URL: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award?AWD_ID=1756381
completed
Howard Lasker
State University of New York at Buffalo
716-645-4870
Department of Geology 126 Cooke Hall
Buffalo
NY
14260-1350
USA
hlasker@buffalo.edu
pointOfContact
Peter J. Edmunds
California State University Northridge
818-677-2502
Department of Biology 18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge
CA
91330-8303
USA
peter.edmunds@csun.edu
pointOfContact
asNeeded
Dataset Version: 1
Unknown
Census_Year
Date
Latitude
Longitude
Site
Transect_Position
Meter_on_transect
Side_of_transect
Meter_Side
Genus
Species
Species_code
Total_height
Height_of_living_tissue
Basal_damage
Damage
Cyphoma_present
Comments
theme
None, User defined
year
date
latitude
longitude
site
transect
track length
No BCO-DMO term
genus
species scientific name (binomial)
taxon_code
height
percent coverage
count
comments
featureType
BCO-DMO Standard Parameters
Measuring Tape
Measuring Tape
Microscope - Optical
Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
instrument
BCO-DMO Standard Instruments
otherRestrictions
otherRestrictions
Access Constraints: none. Use Constraints: Please follow guidelines at: http://www.bco-dmo.org/terms-use Distribution liability: Under no circumstances shall BCO-DMO be liable for any direct, incidental, special, consequential, indirect, or punitive damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, the materials in this data submission. If you are dissatisfied with any materials in this data submission your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue use.
Collaborative Research: Pattern and process in the abundance and recruitment of Caribbean octocorals
https://osprey.bco-dmo.org/project/752508
Collaborative Research: Pattern and process in the abundance and recruitment of Caribbean octocorals
<p><em>NSF Award Abstract:</em><br />
Coral reefs are exposed to a diversity of natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and the consequences for ecosystem degradation have been widely publicized. However, the reported changes have been biased towards fishes and stony corals, and for Caribbean reefs, the most notable example of this bias are octocorals ("soft corals"). Although they are abundant and dominate many Caribbean reefs, they are rarely included in studies due to the difficulty of both identifying them and in quantifying their abundances. In some places there is compelling evidence that soft corals have increased in abundance, even while stony corals have become less common. This suggests that soft corals are more resilient than stony corals to the wide diversity of disturbances that have been impacting coral corals. The best coral reefs on which to study these changes are those that have been studied for decades and can provide a decadal context to more recent events, and in this regard the reefs of St. John, US Virgin Islands are unique. Stony corals on the reefs have been studied since 1987, and the soft corals from 2014. This provides unrivalled platform to evaluate patterns of octocoral abundance and recruitment; identify the patterns of change that are occurring on these reefs, and identify the processes responsible for the resilience of octocoral populations. The project will extend soft coral monitoring from 4 years to 8 years, and within this framework will examine the roles of baby corals, and their response to seafloor roughness, seawater flow, and seaweed, in determining the success of soft corals. The work will also assess whether the destructive effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria have modified the pattern of change. In concert with these efforts the project will be closely integrated with local high schools at which the investigators will host marine biology clubs and provide independent study opportunities for their students and teachers. Unique training opportunities will be provided to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a postdoctoral researcher, all of whom will study and work in St. John, and the investigators will train coral reef researchers to identify the species of soft corals through a hands-on workshop to be conducted in the Florida Keys.</p>
<p>Understanding how changing environmental conditions will affect the community structure of major biomes is the ecological objective defining the 21st century. The holistic effects of these conditions on coral reefs will be studied on shallow reefs within the Virgin Islands National Park in St. John, US Virgin Islands, which is the site of one of the longest-running, long-term studies of coral reef community dynamics in the region. With NSF-LTREB support, the investigators have been studying long-term changes in stony coral communities in this location since 1987, and in 2014 NSF-OCE support was used to build an octocoral "overlay" to this decadal perspective. The present project extends from this unique history, which has been punctuated by the effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, to place octocoral synecology in a decadal context, and the investigators exploit a rich suite of legacy data to better understand the present and immediate future of Caribbean coral reefs. This four-year project will advance on two concurrent fronts: first, to extend time-series analyses of octocoral communities from four to eight years to characterize the pattern and pace of change in community structure, and second, to conduct a program of hypothesis-driven experiments focused on octocoral settlement that will uncover the mechanisms allowing octocorals to more effectively colonize substrata than scleractinian corals on present day reefs. Specifically, the investigators will conduct mensurative and manipulative experiments addressing four hypotheses focusing on the roles of: (1) habitat complexity in distinguishing between octocoral and scleractinian recruitment niches, (2) the recruitment niche in mediating post-settlement success, (3) competition in algal turf and macroalgae in determining the success of octocoral and scleractian recruits, and (4) role of octocoral canopies in modulating the flux of particles and larvae to the seafloor beneath. The results of this study will be integrated to evaluate the factors driving higher ecological resilience of octocorals versus scleractinians on present-day Caribbean reefs.</p>
<p>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.</p>
Octocoral Community Dynamics
largerWorkCitation
project
eng; USA
biota
oceans
-64.7299
-64.7104
18.3029
18.7299
2021-06-25
2022-08-20
St. John, US Virgin Islands
0
BCO-DMO catalogue of parameters from Identity and heights of Octocoral species found on transects at 6 sites on the south shore of St John, U.S. Virgin Islands in 2021 and 2022
Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)
Unavailable
508-289-2009
WHOI MS#36
Woods Hole
MA
02543
USA
info@bco-dmo.org
http://www.bco-dmo.org
Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
For questions regarding this resource, please contact BCO-DMO via the email address provided.
pointOfContact
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894079.rdf
Name: Census_Year
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Year in which the data were collected</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894080.rdf
Name: Date
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Date the data were collected</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894081.rdf
Name: Latitude
Units: decimal degrees
Description: <p>Latitude of sampling site</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894082.rdf
Name: Longitude
Units: decimal degrees
Description: <p>Longitude of sampling site (West is negative)</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894083.rdf
Name: Site
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Unique identifier for sampling site</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894084.rdf
Name: Transect_Position
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Position of transects in a marked 50 x 10 meter (m) area (0m; 10m; 20m; 30m; 40m; 50m)</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894085.rdf
Name: Meter_on_transect
Units: meters
Description: <p>From 0m to 9m. 1x1m quadrats were positioned randomly along the 10 m transect. The values refer to the position of the "shoreward" corner of the quadrat. Thus "0"refers to the quadrat placed between the 0 and 1 meter marks</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894086.rdf
Name: Side_of_transect
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Side of the transect tape (Left or Right), orientation looking towards open ocean, with the nearest shore to the back</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894087.rdf
Name: Meter_Side
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Concatenated meter and side of the transect</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894088.rdf
Name: Genus
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Genus of Octocoral</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894089.rdf
Name: Species
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Genus and species of the octocoral</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894090.rdf
Name: Species_code
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Unique identifier for coral species</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894091.rdf
Name: Total_height
Units: centimeters (cm)
Description: <p>Maximum distance from the base of the octocoral colony until the farthest tips of the longest branch regardless of whether there was living tissue on the branch. The measurement was not necessarily perpendicular to the substrate.</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894092.rdf
Name: Height_of_living_tissue
Units: centimeters (cm)
Description: <p>Maximum distance from the base of the octocoral colony to the farthest tips of the longest branch with living tissue (i.e. not necessarily perpendicular to the substrate). All measures rounded to the nearest cm with the exception of 5 cm which only includes colonies greater than or equal to 5 cm. Measures less than 5 cm reflect colonies with thick branches which could only have less than 5 cm heights due to partial mortality.</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894093.rdf
Name: Basal_damage
Units: centimeters (cm)
Description: <p>Height from the base of the colony to living tissue. This value is 0.0 for colonies that have no damage to their base.</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894094.rdf
Name: Damage
Units: unitless
Description: <p> Damage (1 when < 25% of the colony have injuries, 2 when injuries are in > 25% but < 50% of the colony, 3 when in juries are > 50% of the colony but < 75%, 4 when a colony has injuries in > 75% of the colony)</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894095.rdf
Name: Cyphoma_present
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Number of Cyphoma spp. present on the colony. Unless noted in Comments individuals individuals are C. gibbosum per colony</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894096.rdf
Name: Comments
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Epibiont comment. "Millepora" inicates Millepora overgrowing naked axis, "Cyanobacteria" indicates Cyanobacteria growing on the colony. "Ophio" indicates the presence of the invasive ophiouroid Ophiothela mirabilis</p>
GB/NERC/BODC > British Oceanographic Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, United Kingdom
Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)
Unavailable
508-289-2009
WHOI MS#36
Woods Hole
MA
02543
USA
info@bco-dmo.org
http://www.bco-dmo.org
Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
For questions regarding this resource, please contact BCO-DMO via the email address provided.
pointOfContact
377822
https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/27830f85-12f4-4800-9235-f6d286914e19/content
download
https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.893615.1
download
onLine
dataset
<p>To investigate community dynamics of octocorals on Caribbean coral reefs, transect surveys were conducted at 6 sites on the south shore of St John, within the Virgin Islands National Park during the summers of 2021 and 2022.&nbsp; Depending on the site, 3 to 6 transects were established.&nbsp;All sites were located at 6 to 9 meters depth and samples were collected by SCUBA from small boats. The identity and heights of all arborescent octocorals greater than or equal to 5 centimeters were recorded from 1 square meter quadrats on the transects.&nbsp; The position of colonies relative to the site, meter on the transect, and side of the quadrat are included.</p>
<p>Censuses at sites Grootpan, Europa, and Tektite were based on 50-meter x 10-meter areas that were arbitrarily selected and permanently marked with stainless steel eyebolts at the corners of the sites. A total of six transect lines, also marked with eyebolts, were laid out at 10 m intervals. At Booby Rock, a 50-meter line running parallel to the approximately 7-meter depth contour was established, and survey transects (3 in 2021 and 6 in 2022) were positioned at random points along the line.&nbsp; All octocorals present in 1 x 1-meter quadrats along the 10-meter long transects were identified and their heights were measured. Small branch tip samples were collected from colonies that could not be identified in the field.&nbsp; Sclerites were digested from those colonies with a commercial bleach solution and sclerites were observed with a compound scope for identification. Octocoral adults were defined as individuals greater than or equal to 5 centimeters in height, with height determined to the nearest centimeter.</p>
Specified by the Principal Investigator(s)
<p>Data were collected on paper and slates and transcribed to Excel files each day of fieldwork.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Specified by the Principal Investigator(s)
BCO-DMO Processing description:
Primay data table:
- Data imported into BCO-DMO from the provided file "HRL-NSF.Data.Adult.Census-2020-2021.xlsx" sheet "Data" containing data with Date column values between "2021-06-26" to "2022-08-20." Appears on this dataset as "893615_v1_octocoral-height.csv"
- Adjusted field/parameter names to comply with BCO-DMO naming conventions
- Added columns "Latitude" and "Longitude" based on site locations
- Rounded columns "Latitude" and "Longitude" to 4 decimal places (for consistency with other datasets in project)
Supplemental File:
- "HRL-NSF.Data.Adult.Census-2020-2021.xlsx" sheet "Species Codes" was imported into BCO-DMO (appears on this dataset as "species_codes.csv").
Additional columns added with the Life Science Identifier (LSID) for the species category from matching names at the World Register of Marine Species (2025-10-02).
Corrections were made to species names in the data tables and metadata of this dataset.
Eunicea lacinata ->
Eunicea laciniata
Plexaura kukenthali ->
Plexaura kuekenthali
Specified by BCO-DMO Data Managers
asNeeded
7.x-1.1
Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)
Unavailable
508-289-2009
WHOI MS#36
Woods Hole
MA
02543
USA
info@bco-dmo.org
http://www.bco-dmo.org
Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
For questions regarding this resource, please contact BCO-DMO via the email address provided.
pointOfContact
PI Supplied Instrument Name: PI Supplied Instrument Description:Transect tapes with 1 centimeter resolution for positioning quadrats Instrument Name: Measuring Tape Instrument Short Name: Instrument Description: A tape measure or measuring tape is a flexible ruler. It consists of a ribbon of cloth, plastic, fibre glass, or metal strip with linear-measurement markings. It is a common tool for measuring distance or length.
PI Supplied Instrument Name: PI Supplied Instrument Description:I meter tapes with 1 millimeter resolution for measuring colony heights Instrument Name: Measuring Tape Instrument Short Name: Instrument Description: A tape measure or measuring tape is a flexible ruler. It consists of a ribbon of cloth, plastic, fibre glass, or metal strip with linear-measurement markings. It is a common tool for measuring distance or length.
PI Supplied Instrument Name: PI Supplied Instrument Description:Compound microscope at 100 and 200x for identifications of colonies from which sclerite samples were obtained Instrument Name: Microscope - Optical Instrument Short Name: Instrument Description: Instruments that generate enlarged images of samples using the phenomena of reflection and absorption of visible light. Includes conventional and inverted instruments. Also called a "light microscope". Community Standard Description: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/L05/current/LAB05/
PI Supplied Instrument Name: Instrument Name: Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus Instrument Short Name:SCUBA Instrument Description: The self-contained underwater breathing apparatus or scuba diving system is the result of technological developments and innovations that began almost 300 years ago. Scuba diving is the most extensively used system for breathing underwater by recreational divers throughout the world and in various forms is also widely used to perform underwater work for military, scientific, and commercial purposes.
Reference: https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/technical/technical.html