Gulf Coral & Hardbottom (Southeast Blueprint Indicator ) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] {2023} Full Details
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Full Details
- Title:
- Gulf 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 is also sometimes associated with chemosynthetic communities around cold seeps or deep-sea hydrothermal vents where bacteria convert chemicals into energy and form the base of complex food webs (Love et al. 2013). Hardbottom and associated species provide important habitat structure for many fish and invertebrates (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, Schulze et al. 2020). Input Data Southeast Blueprint 2023 extent Southeast Blueprint 2023 subregions: Gulf of Mexico usSEABED Gulf of Mexico sediments, accessed 4-21-2023; download the data; view and read more about the data on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Gulf of Mexico Atlas (select Physical --> Marine geology --> 1. Dominant bottom types and habitats) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Gulf of Mexicoseismic water bottom anomalies, accessed 4-4-2023 NOAA artificial reefs, accessed 6-9-2023 on theMarine Cadastre, provided by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management NOAA Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) Wrecks, accessed 6-9-2023;download the data Oil and natural gas platforms, accessed 6-9-2023 from theHomeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data portal NOAA deep-sea coral locations, accessed 6-9-2023 on theNOAA Deep-Sea Coral & Sponge Map Portal Gulf of Mexico Coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern(HAPC) designated by theGulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, accessed 6-23-2023 Mapping Steps From the BOEM .lpk data, extract the following shapefiles: anomaly_confirmed_relic_patchreefs.shp, anomaly_Cretaceous.shp, anomaly_relic_patchreefs.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_buried_carbonate.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_carbonate.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_organisms.shp, seep_anomaly_positives.shp, seep_anomaly_positives_confirmed_gas.shp, seep_anomaly_positives_confirmed_oil.shp, seep_anomaly_positives_possible_oil.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_corals.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_hydrate.shp. To create a class of confirmed BOEM features, combine anomaly_confirmed_relic_patchreefs.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_organisms.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_corals.shp, and seep_anomaly_confirmed_hydrate.shp and convert to raster. To create a class of predicted BOEM features, use the remaining extracted shapefiles and convert to raster. From usSEABED data, use the field "gom_domnc" to classify polygons into 3 categories: rock (dominant and subdominant), gravel (dominant and subdominant), and all other sediments. Convert to raster. From oil and natural gas platform data, select points where STATUS = ‘REMOVED' to extract only decommissioned platforms. Merge point locations for shipwrecks, artificial reefs, and decommissioned oil and natural gas platforms (which have a status of "removed" in the source data). Buffer them by 150 m and convert to raster. 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'. Then buffer the selected point locations by 150 m and convert to raster. Note: These vernacular name categories match the taxa included in the Atlantic version of this indicator and represent the major types of hard deep-sea corals in the Gulf of Mexico. Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary provideshelpful descriptions of the taxa that inhabit the Deep Coral Zone. From the Coral HAPC data, merge the following files: Coral9NoRegs.shp, Coral9Regs, ExistingWithOutRegs.shp, and ExistingWithRegs.shp. Convert to raster. Add zero values to help users better understand the extent of this indicator and to make this indicator layer perform better in online tools. Buffer the Southeast Blueprint 2023 Gulf of Mexico marine subregion by 100 km to make a continuous buffer along the coast, with no gaps. Use this to create a raster of zeros within this buffer to approximate the analysis extent of the indicator. This buffer distance matches the one used in the Atlantic version of this indicator, which 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). Combine all input data and the raster of zeros to create the final indicator categories seen below. 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 the Southeast Blueprint 2023 Data Download under > 6_Code. Final indicator values Indicator values are assigned as follows: 6 = Confirmed hardbottom-associated species (corals, patch reef, chemosynthetic communities, or other organisms) 5 = Confirmed human-created hardbottom (shipwrecks, artificial reefs, decommissioned oil and gas platforms)4 = Predicted hardbottom (fine resolution)3 = Coral Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC)2 = Rock (coarse resolution)1 = Gravel (coarse resolution)0 = Not identified as hardbottom Known Issues While active oil and gas platforms also provide artificial hardbottom habitat that supports diverse marine life (Claisse et al. 2014), we did not include active drilling sites in this first version of the indicator. This decision reflects an attempt to balance the positive structural habitat value of oil and gas platforms with the negative impacts of climate change caused by fossil fuel combustion (e.g., coral bleaching and ocean acidification) (NOAA 2023) and the negative impacts of a potential oil spill (Daley 2019). We intend to further investigate these tradeoffs in future revisions. The confirmed human-created hardbottom class may include sites where the previous oil or gas platform has been fully removed and no longer provides habitat structure. It may also include sites where the decommissioned rig was moved to an alternative location to be repurposed as a reef. In future updates, we hope to better pinpoint the locations of decommissioned offshore rigs that have been specifically repurposed as artificial reefs. The confirmed human-created hardbottom class does not account for variation in the condition of artificial habitat structures, such as harmful leaks from capped oil and gas wells or "black reef" phenomena caused by pollution and invasive species growth around contaminated shipwrecks (Degnarain 2020). Multiple important habitat areas associated with decommissioned oil and gas platforms are under- and overprioritized in this indicator because there are significant issues with the oil and gas platform dataset. While some data have been updated recently, the status field used to differentiate between active and removed platforms has not been recently validated for many platforms and is significantly outdated. We are looking into improving the oil and gas platform-related data with state data in a future update. 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 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]. Claisse JT, Pondella DJ, Love M, Zahn LA, Williams CM, Williams JP, Bull AS (2014) Oil platforms off California are among the most productive marine fish habitats globally.Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111: 15462−15467 [https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1411477111]. Daley, Jason. Deepwater Horizon Site is Now a Sticky Wasteland Populated by Sickly Crabs. September 19, 2019. Smithsonian Magazine. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/deepwater-horizon-site-wasteland-populated-sickly-crabs-180973181/]. Degnarain, Nashan. Black Reef Risk: How Sunken Metal Shipwrecks Attract Coral-Destroying Invasive Species. August 20, 2020. Forbes. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/nishandegnarain/2020/08/20/black-reef-risk-how-sunken-metal-shipwrecks-attract-coral-destroying-invasive-species/?sh=55ae49c4129d]. Jenkins C. Dominant Bottom Types and Habitats In Gulf of Mexico Data Atlas [Internet]. Stennis Space Center (MS): National Centers for Environmental Information; 2011. [5 screens]. [https://gulfatlas.noaa.gov]. 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]. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Mesophotic Habitats. Accessed August 3, 2023. [https://flowergarden.noaa.gov/about/mesophotic.html]. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. How does climate change affect coral reefs? National Ocean Service website. Last updated January 20, 2023. Accessed August 9, 2023. [https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coralreef-climate.html]. 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]. Love, M., Baldera, A., Yeung, C. & Robbins C. (2013). The Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem: A Coastal and Marine Atlas. New Orleans, LA: Ocean Conservancy, Gulf Restoration Center. [https://oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/gulf-atlas.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]. Schulze A, Erdner DL, Grimes CJ, et al (2020) Artificial Reefs in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Community Ecology Amid the "Ocean Sprawl." Front Mar Sci 7:447. [https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00447]. Wu, Zhongin, James R. Tweedley, Neil R. Loneragan, Xiumei Zhang. 2019. Artificial reefs can mimic natural habitats for fish and macroinvertebrates 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
- Provider:
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open Data
- Resource Class:
- Imagery and Web services
- Resource Type:
- Satellite imagery
- Temporal Coverage:
- 2023
- Date Issued:
- 2023-09-20
- Place:
- 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:
- 2023-10-17