http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset/893866
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
2023-04-12
ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data
ISO 19115-2:2009(E)
Octocoral Recruitment surveys 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.893866.1
Howard Lasker
State University of New York at Buffalo
principalInvestigator
Peter J. Edmunds
California State University Northridge
principalInvestigator
Christopher Wells
State University of New York at Buffalo
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., Wells, C. (2025) Octocoral Recruitment surveys 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.893866.1 [access date]
Methods and Sampling: <p>Recruit censuses were conducted in 2021 and 2022. Recruits (1 polyp - 5 centimeters tall) were enumerated, and when possible were identified to genus level in separate 0.25 square meter quadrats randomly placed (n = 8) along 6 transects at each of 3 sites (48 quadrats per site). Transects were positioned in a marked 50-meter x 10-meter area, with stainless steel eye bolts marking each corner, and each of the 6 transects. Transects were 10 meters long across the area.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Transect positions by site: </strong><br />
- Europa, Grootpan, and Tektite: transects were positioned in a marked 50 x 10 meter area, with stainless steel eye bolts marking each corner, and each of the 6 transects. Transects were 10 meters long across the area. So there were 0 meters; 10 meters; 20 meters; 30 meters; 40 meters; 50 meters.<br />
- Booby Rock: &nbsp;Surveys at Booby Rock were added in 2022. Transects were positioned at random points along a 100-meter line run parallel to the shore.&nbsp; Transects ran downslope for 10 meters from the point on the 100-meter line.<br />
- Deep Tektite, Yawzi: Three 10-meter transects positioned 10 meters apart along the reef edge and running perpendicular to the reef edge. 0.25 square meter quadrats were randomly placed (n = 16) along 3 transects at each site (48 quadrats per site).<br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
- Octocoral recruits are defined as individuals less than 5 centimeters in height.<br />
- In most cases 8 quadrats were surveyed on each transect, but there are a few transects with fewer quadrats.<br />
- &lt;0.1, &lt;0.2 and &lt;0.3 centimeter heights are not actual measurements and are values assigned to recruits with&nbsp; 1, 2, or 3 polyps.<br />
- In the comments column: "No recruits present " indicates those quadrats surveyed without recruits.</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
Christopher Wells
State University of New York at Buffalo
christopher.wells.23@gmail.com
pointOfContact
asNeeded
Dataset Version: 1
Unknown
Census_Year
Date
Latitude
Longitude
Site
Transect_Position
Side_of_transect
Meter_on_transect
Taxon
Genus
Height
Comments
Transect tape
theme
None, User defined
year
date
latitude
longitude
site
transect
track length
species scientific name (binomial)
genus
height
comments
featureType
BCO-DMO Standard Parameters
Measuring Tape
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
2021-07-04
2022-08-20
St. John, US Virgin Islands
0
BCO-DMO catalogue of parameters from Octocoral Recruitment surveys 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/894111.rdf
Name: Census_Year
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Year the data were collected</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894112.rdf
Name: Date
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Date the survey was conducted</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894113.rdf
Name: Latitude
Units: decimal degrees
Description: <p>Latitude of the survey site</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894114.rdf
Name: Longitude
Units: decimal degrees
Description: <p>Longitude of the survey site (West is negative)</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894115.rdf
Name: Site
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Name of sampling site</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894116.rdf
Name: Transect_Position
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Position of transects in a marked 50 x 10 meter area (see acquisition description for details)</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894117.rdf
Name: Side_of_transect
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Side of the transect tape (Left or Right), orientation looking towards open ocean, with the shore in the back.</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894118.rdf
Name: Meter_on_transect
Units: meters
Description: <p>From 0 meters to 9.5 meters. Quadrat of 50 x 50 centimeter positioned randomly along a 10 meter transect. Each number indicates the meter at which the inferior side of the quadrat was positioned.</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894119.rdf
Name: Taxon
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Genus and species of the colony or in the case of species that cannot be differentiated in the field the name of species group</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894120.rdf
Name: Genus
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Genus of the coral colony</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894121.rdf
Name: Height
Units: centimeters (cm)
Description: <p>Height to nearest 0.1 cm, measured from the base of the recruit to the top of the living tissue. Measurements of 0<0.1, <0.2 and <0.3 centimeter heights are not actual measurements and are values assigned to recruits with 1, 2, or 3 polyps.</p>
http://lod.bco-dmo.org/id/dataset-parameter/894122.rdf
Name: Comments
Units: unitless
Description: <p>Bitten tip of the recruit shows evidence of the tip having been bitten off, "Skel above" or "additional xx cm above stripped" refers to the presence of bare axis at the tip of the recruit. The bare axis was not included in the height measurement.</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
107896
https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/2d164ee8-70dc-488b-a303-f6f78571cf02/content
download
https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.893866.1
download
onLine
dataset
<p>Recruit censuses were conducted in 2021 and 2022. Recruits (1 polyp - 5 centimeters tall) were enumerated, and when possible were identified to genus level in separate 0.25 square meter quadrats randomly placed (n = 8) along 6 transects at each of 3 sites (48 quadrats per site). Transects were positioned in a marked 50-meter x 10-meter area, with stainless steel eye bolts marking each corner, and each of the 6 transects. Transects were 10 meters long across the area.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Transect positions by site: </strong><br />
- Europa, Grootpan, and Tektite: transects were positioned in a marked 50 x 10 meter area, with stainless steel eye bolts marking each corner, and each of the 6 transects. Transects were 10 meters long across the area. So there were 0 meters; 10 meters; 20 meters; 30 meters; 40 meters; 50 meters.<br />
- Booby Rock: &nbsp;Surveys at Booby Rock were added in 2022. Transects were positioned at random points along a 100-meter line run parallel to the shore.&nbsp; Transects ran downslope for 10 meters from the point on the 100-meter line.<br />
- Deep Tektite, Yawzi: Three 10-meter transects positioned 10 meters apart along the reef edge and running perpendicular to the reef edge. 0.25 square meter quadrats were randomly placed (n = 16) along 3 transects at each site (48 quadrats per site).<br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
- Octocoral recruits are defined as individuals less than 5 centimeters in height.<br />
- In most cases 8 quadrats were surveyed on each transect, but there are a few transects with fewer quadrats.<br />
- &lt;0.1, &lt;0.2 and &lt;0.3 centimeter heights are not actual measurements and are values assigned to recruits with&nbsp; 1, 2, or 3 polyps.<br />
- In the comments column: "No recruits present " indicates those quadrats surveyed without recruits.</p>
Specified by the Principal Investigator(s)
BCO-DMO Processing description:
- Data imported into BCO-DMO from the provided file "NSF_2021-2022-Octocoral Recruits.xlsx" sheets "Recruit_Surveys-2021" and "Recruit_Surveys- 2022".
* The 2021 and 2022 data were combined and appear in this dataset as Data File "893866_v1_octocoral-recruitment.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 the project)
The following correction was made to a species name in the data tables and metadata of this dataset.
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
Transect tape
Transect tape
PI Supplied Instrument Name: Transect tape 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: 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