Developing surface water GPS digital mapping technology to map the spatial distribution of size classes and disease prevalence of Elkhorn coral in the nearshore waters of St. Thomas and St. Croix

Devine, Barry.; Drew, Mark.; Ischida, Kim.; Patterson, Shona.; Brown, Jeanne B., 1974-; Mason, Lucy.; Colletti, Christina.; Bruckner, Andrew W.

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Developing surface water GPS digital mapping technology to map the spatial distribution of size classes and disease prevalence of Elkhorn coral in the nearshore waters of St. Thomas and St. Croix

2007
By Devine, Barry. ; Drew, Mark. ; Ischida, Kim. ; ...

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Personal Author:

Devine, Barry. ; Drew, Mark. ; Ischida, Kim. ; Patterson, Shona. ; Brown, Jeanne B., 1974- ; Mason, Lucy. ; Colletti, Christina. ; Bruckner, Andrew W.
Corporate Authors:

United States, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ; Coral Reef Conservation Program (U.S.)
NOAA Program & Office:

CoRIS (Coral Reef Information System)
Description:

"Much has been written about the species population status of the now ESA Listed Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) corals throughout their range and the decline the two species have suffered over the past three decades from storms and disease. The University of the Virgin Islands Conservation Data Center in partnership with the Nature Conservancy, Eastern Caribbean Office created a pilot project to develop GIS/GPS digital technology to map the spatial extent of size classes and disease affecting the ESA Listed Species Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata) around St. Thomas and St. Croix, USVI as a population baseline. The project was submitted by The Nature Conservancy to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under a Coral Reef Conservation Program grant and received approval in 2006. This Geographic Information Systems (GIS) pilot mapping project would have two goals; (1) to develop and use a new surface water Global Positioning System / Personal Data Assistant (GPS/PDA) to record data previously recorded and plotted by hand and (2) to map the spatial location and population patterns of these species in priority bays around St. Croix and St. Thomas as a foundation to broader mapping efforts and long term datasets on population recovery and decline. The sampling plan was to be completed twice, separated by a one year interval to possibly determine any recovery or decline within the surveyed population, but TNC staff and personnel issues, weather, site access, technical challenges and sampling plan adjustments caused that objective to be revised by the Principal Investigators"--Intro.
Keywords:

Coral Reefs And Islands Corals Diseases Geographical Distribution Global Positioning System Maps Monitoring Remote Sensing Coral Reefs And Islands Geographical Distribution Remote Sensing
Document Type:

Professional Paper
Place as Subject:

United States Virgin Islands ; Saint Thomas ; Saint Croix
Rights Information:

Public Domain
Compliance:

Library
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:4a944c756c8da015ce664ba587059073c5e5e43cdd0ab91d99ebf0f45759daaf
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/585/noaa_585_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 5.12 MB ]

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