Developed by scientists from the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center's Ecosystem Sciences Division, the Environmental Data Summary (EDS) tool utilizes survey data funded by the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP), Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), and USAID. This advanced tool, written in R, offers a consistent way to enhance in situ survey data with external environmental data, providing access to NOAA CoastWatch and OceanWatch datasets via the ERDDAP server protocol.
This dataset analyzes climate exposure, ecological resilience, and social vulnerability to climate change threats in U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands' coral reefs. Derived from NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program surveys, it focuses on ocean temperature increases and coral bleaching impacts, presenting findings in a publication series for Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The dataset provides geotiff maps depicting coral growth and survival favorability in Guam and American Samoa under three climate scenarios, derived from various environmental factors. Scores between 0 and 1 indicate coral conditions, with 0 being the worst and 1 being the best, as detailed in the 2022 manuscript "Where favorable environmental conditions and resilient corals coincide: Guam and American Samoa".
This dataset comprises water temperature data collected through subsurface temperature recorders (STRs) for monitoring seawater temperature variability at permanent coral reef sites in American Samoa. Deployed as part of the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP), these high-accuracy temperature loggers, manufactured by SeaBird Electronics (SBE), operate at depths of 0 to 30 meters along depth transects at Ocean and Climate Change monitoring survey sites for 3 years. Recovered STRs are replaced with new deployments in the same location.
The ability of corals to adapt to climate change relies on the existing genetic variation for climate-related resistance. By genotyping 15,399 single nucleotide polymorphisms in Acropora hyacinthus corals within a naturally variable temperature environment, 114 highly divergent SNPs were identified as potential candidates for environmental selection, indicating the presence of alleles preadapted to high temperatures in the population.