Atlantic Coral & Hardbottom (Southeast Blueprint Indicator ) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] {2023}
Department of the Interior · 2023 Full Details
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- Title
- Atlantic Coral & Hardbottom (Southeast Blueprint Indicator ) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] {2023}
- Description
- Reason for Selection Hardbottom provides an anchor for important seafloor habitats such as deep-sea corals, plants, and sponges. Hardbottom and these associated communities provide important habitat structure for many invertebrate and fish species (NOAA 2018). Hardbottom areas serve as fish nursery, spawning, and foraging grounds, supporting commercially valuable fisheries like snapper and grouper (NCDEQ 2016). According to Dunn and Halpin (2009), "hardbottom habitats support high levels of biodiversity and are frequently used as a surrogate for it in marine spatial planning."Human-created hardbottom (e.g., artificial reefs) is also known to provide additional habitat that is quickly colonized to provide a suite of ecosystem services commonly associated with naturally occurring hardbottom (Wu et al. 2019). Input Data Southeast Blueprint 2023 extent Southeast Blueprint 2023 subregions: Atlantic marine, marine (combined Atlantic & Gulf of Mexico) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)Characterizing Spatial Distributions of Deep-sea Corals and Hardbottom Habitats in the U.S. Southeast Atlantic;read the final report; data shared prior to official release on 2-4-2022 by Dr. Matt Poti withthe NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)(matthew.poti@noaa.gov) Predictive Modeling and Mapping of Hardbottom Seafloor Habitats off the Southeast U.S: unpublished NOAA data and draft final report entitled Assessment of Benthic Habitats for Fisheries Managementprovided on 1-28-2021 by Dr. Matt Poti with NOAA NCCOS (matthew.poti@noaa.gov) Mapping and Geomorphic Characterization of the Vast Cold-Water Coral Mounds of the Blake Plateau; data provided prior to official release on 6-14-2023 by Dr. Derek Sowers with Ocean Exploration Trust (derek@oceanexplorationtrust.org); read more about the mapping expedition, read an abstract describing this work from the 2024 Ocean Sciences Meeting; read a white paper about the survey The Nature Conservancy's (TNC)South Atlantic Bight Marine Assessment; chapter 3 ofthe final reportprovides more detail on the seafloor habitats analysis NOAA artificial reefs, accessed 6-21-2023 on theMarine Cadastre, provided by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management NOAA Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) Wrecks, accessed 6-9-2023;download the dataNOAA deep-sea coral locations, accessed 6-21-2023 on theNOAA Deep-Sea Coral & Sponge Map Portal Mapping Steps Buffer the Southeast Blueprint 2023 Atlantic marine subregion by 100 km. Convert to raster, giving all areas inside the buffer a value of 0. This buffer distance attempts to capture how far upstream brackish water typically extends along the Atlantic coast and is informed by a 1978 water quality study of the estuarine James River in Virginia(Neilson and Ferry 1978). This is intended to approximate part of the analysis extent of the indicator. Reclassify both NOAA hardbottom datasets into 5 quantiles. Combine the two NOAA hardbottom datasets and use the newer data from the "Characterizing Spatial Distributions of Deep-sea Corals and Hardbottom Habitat in the U.S. Southeast Atlantic" project where pixels overlap. Snap and project the result based on the Southeast Blueprint 2023 marine subregion. Add to the buffer created in the first step to ensure that the southern "tail" of the NOAA probabilities is not cut off in the Florida Keys. Reclassify the combined NOAA probability raster to give all values >0 a value of 1, convert it to a polygon, and buffer it by 100 m. Then union the result with the buffered Atlantic marine extent from the first step and convert it back to a raster. This now more fully represents the analysis extent of the indicator. From the Blake Plateau dataset, pull out peaks, ridges, and slopes from the landform data and assign them all a value of 6. Combine all anthropogenic hardbottom points (shipwrecks and artificial reefs). Buffer the points by 150 m and convert to raster, assigning all buffered points a value of 7.The buffer distance used here, and later for coral locations, follows guidance from the Army Corps of Engineers for setbacks around artificial reefs and fish havens (Riley et al. 2021). From the deep-sea coral point locations, select points with a Vernacular field value of either ‘stony coral (branching)', ‘stony coral (cup coral)', ‘stony coral (unspecified)', ‘black coral', or ‘gorgonian coral'. These vernacular name categories best correspond to the taxa included in the NOAA hardbottom and deep-seal coral models mentioned above. Then buffer the selected point locations by 150 m, convert to raster, andassign them a value of 8. From the TNC SABMA data, pull out observed hardbottom polygons that contain a value of "01. mapped hardbottom area" in the TEXT_DESC field. Convert to a raster and assign a value of 7. Combine all the layers produced above using the cell statistics tool with the overlay statistic maximum. Use the 2019 NLCD to remove all land from the above raster, where this marine indicator does not apply.Assign a value of 0 to all pixels that are not a value of 0 or 11 in the NLCD. Remove all areas outside of the 100 km buffer around the Atlantic marine subregion. As a final step, clip to the spatial extent of Southeast Blueprint 2023. Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in theSoutheast Blueprint Data Downloadunder > 6_Code. Final indicator values Indicator values are assigned as follows: 8 = Confirmed coral 7 = Confirmed natural or human-created hardbottom (shipwrecks, artificial reefs) 6 = Predicted cold-water coral mounds (Blake Plateau) 5 = Highest probability of hardbottom (>80th percentile) 4 = High probability of hardbottom (>60th-80th percentile) 3 = Medium probability of hardbottom (>40th-60th percentile) 2 = Low probability of hardbottom (>20th-40th percentile) 1 = Lowest probability of hardbottom (≤20th percentile) 0 = Not identified as hardbottom Known Issues This indicator underprioritizes confirmed natural hardbottom. We intended for the top class of the indicator (class 8) to include confirmed coral and natural hardbottom, but due to a processing error, inadvertently assigned confirmed natural hardbottom to class 7. We discovered this too late to fix in this update cycle, but updated the legend accordingly so it accurately reflects the actual mapping steps used. We intend to fix this in our next update to this indicator. It is unlikely to meaningfully impact the Blueprint priorities. This indicator likely underpredicts hardbottom suitability in shallow waters. While this indicator includes new hardbottom suitability models based on recent hardbottom observations for deep waters (depths of 50 m or below), the underlying NOAA data available for shallow waters were developed in 2014. While this layer has a 30 m resolution, both NOAA hardbottom datasets were coarser than that. We downsampled 100 m pixels and 92 m pixels to 30 m. This indicator underestimates shallower hardbottom habitat (<200 m depth) north of the NC/VA state line because the study area of the shallower hardbottom suitability dataset was restricted only to the South Atlantic marine environment and did not cover the northern portion of the SECAS marine area. The indicator also underestimates deeper hardbottom habitat north of approximately 37.5°N latitude because the study area of the deeper hardbottom suitability dataset does not perfectly align with the SECAS marine area and leaves an area of NoData. Disclaimer: Comparing with Older Indicator Versions There are numerous problems with using Southeast Blueprint indicators for change analysis. Please consult Blueprint staff if you would like to do this (email hilary_morris@fws.gov). Literature Cited Conley, M.F., M.G. Anderson, N. Steinberg, and A. Barnett, eds. 2017. The South Atlantic Bight Marine Assessment: Species, Habitats and Ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy, Eastern Conservation Science. [https://easterndivision.s3.amazonaws.com/Marine/SABMA/SABMA_Report_11April2018.pdf]. Dunn DC, Halpin PN (2009) Rugosity-based regional modeling of hard-bottom habitat. Marine Ecology Progress Series 377:1-11. [https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07839]. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.Unpublished Draft: Assessment of Benthic Habitats for Fisheries Management. May 2015. [https://secassoutheast.org/pdf/DRAFT_Benthic-Habitats-for-Fisheries-Management-Final-Report-April-2015-with-MP-additions.pdf]. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program 2018 Report to Congress. December 2018. [https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/coris/library/NOAA/DSCRTP/Other/Reports_To_Congress/2018/DSCRTP2018_Report_to_Congress.pdf]. NCDEQ (North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality) 2016. North Carolina Coastal Habitat Protection Plan Source Document. Morehead City, NC. Division of Marine Fisheries. 475 p. [https://deq.nc.gov/media/26813/open]. Neilson, B. J., & Ferry, P. S. (1978) A Water Quality Study of the Estuarine James River. Special Reports in Applied Marine Science and Ocean Engineering (SRAMSOE) No.131. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary. [https://doi.org/10.21220/V52157]. Poti M, Goyert HF, Salgado EJ, Bassett R, Coyne M, Winship AJ, Etnoyer PJ, Hourigan TF, Coleman HM, Christensen J. 2022. Data synthesis and predictive modeling of deep-sea coral and hardbottom habitats offshore of the southeastern US: guiding efficient discovery and protection of sensitive benthic areas. New Orleans (LA): US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. 224 p. Contract No.: M16PG00010. Report No.: OCS Study BOEM 2022- 038. [https://espis.boem.gov/final%20reports/BOEM_2022-038.pdf]. Riley, K.L., Wickliffe, L.C., Jossart, J.A., MacKay, J.K., Randall, A.L., Bath, G.E., Balling, M.B., Jensen, B.M., and Morris, J.A. Jr. 2021. An Aquaculture Opportunity Area Atlas for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 299. Beaufort, NC. 545 pp. [https://doi.org/10.25923/8cb3-3r66]. Sowers, Derek, Larry Mayer, Giuseppe Masetti, Erik Cordes, Ryan Gasbarro, Elizabeth Lobecker, Kasey Cantwell, Shannon Hoy, Michael White, Sam Candio, Mashkoor Malik, and Matt Dornback. Mapping and Geomorphic Characterization of the Vast Cold-Water Coral Mounds of the Blake Plateau. Accessed June 14, 2023. [https://secassoutheast.org/pdf/ISDSC8_Sowers_et_al_Poster_Final.pdf]. Wu, Zhongin, James R. Tweedley, Neil R. Loneragan, Xiumei Zhang. 2019. Artificial reefs can mimic natural habitats for fish and macroinvertrbrates in temperate coastal waters of the Yellow Sea. Ecological Engineering, vol 139. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2019.08.009].
- Creator
- Department of the Interior
- Temporal Coverage
- 2023
- Date Issued
- 2023-09-20
- Rights
- The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. While the Service makes every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of data provided for distribution, it may not have the necessary accuracy or completeness required for every possible intended use. The Service recommends that data users consult the associated metadata record to understand the quality and possible limitations of the data. The Service creates metadata records in accordance with the standards endorsed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee. As a result of the above considerations, the Service gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the data. It is the responsibility of the data user to use the data in a manner consistent with the limitations of geospatial data in general and these data in particular. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the Service, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made regarding the utility of the data on another system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. This applies to the use of the data both alone and in aggregate with other data and information.
- Access Rights
- Public
- Format
- Imagery
- Language
- English
- Date Added
- October 17, 2023
Cite and Reference
-
Citation
Department of the Interior (2023). Atlantic Coral & Hardbottom (Southeast Blueprint Indicator ) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] {2023}. . https://gis-fws.opendata.arcgis.com/content/fws::atlantic-coral-hardbottom-southeast-blueprint-indicator-2023 (imagery) -
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