Draft v.2 Gulf Coral & Hardbottom Indicator for Southeast Blueprint [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] {2024} Full Details

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Title:

Draft v.2 Gulf Coral & Hardbottom Indicator for Southeast Blueprint [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] {2024}

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Overview This indicator predicts the presence of coral and hardbottom in the Gulf of Mexico based on direct observations, acoustic surveys, and known locations of artificial reefs and other shipwrecks. It combines data from multiple sources, including Bureau of Ocean Energy Management seismic water bottom anomalies, usSEABED sediment data, several National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration datasets, and more. 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." Artificial reefs arealso 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). We did not include active oil and gas structures as human-created hardbottom. Although they provide habitat, because of their temporary nature, risk of contamination, and contributions to climate change, they do not have the same level of conservation value as other artificial structures. Input Data Southeast Blueprint 2024 extent Southeast Blueprint 2024 subregions Marine Ecoregions Level IIIfrom the Commission for Environmental Cooperation North American Environmental Atlas, accessed 12-8-2021 2023NOAA coastal relief model: volumes 2 (Southeast Atlantic), 3 (Florida and East Gulf of Mexico), 4 (Central Gulf of Mexico), and 5 (Western Gulf of Mexico), accessed 3-27-2024 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 with the 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 anddraft 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) usSEABED Gulf of Mexico sediments, accessed 12-14-2023; 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 12-20-2023 The Nature Conservancy's (TNC)South Atlantic Bight Marine Assessment(SABMA); chapter 3 ofthe final reportprovides more detail on the seafloor habitats analysis NOAA deep-sea coral and sponge locations, accessed 12-20-2023 on theNOAA Deep-Sea Coral & Sponge Map Portal Florida coral and hardbottom habitats, accessed 12-19-2023 NOAA wrecks and obstructions layer, accessed 12-12-2024 on theMarine Cadastre State artificial reef datasets Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Artificial Reefs: Inshore Artificial Reefs, Nearshore Artificial Reefs, Offshore and Deepwater Artificial Reefs (Google Earth/KML files), accessed 12-19-2023 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) Artificial Reefs, accessed 12-19-2023; download the data fromThe Artificial Reefs Interactive Mapping Application(direct download from interactive mapping application) Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) Artificial Reef Bureau: Inshore Reefs, Offshore Reefs, Rigs to Reef (lat/long coordinates), accessed 12-19-2023 Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) Artificial Reefs: Master Alabama Public Reefs v2023 (.xls), accessed 12-19-2023 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC):Artificial Reefs in Florida (.xlsx), accessed 12-19-2023 Mapping Steps Note: Most of the mapping steps were accomplished using the graphical modeler in QGIS 3.34. Individual models were created to combine data sources and assign ranked values. These models were combined in a single model to assemble all the data sources and create a summary raster. Create a seamless vector layer to constrain the extent of the Gulf coral and hardbottom indicator to marine and estuarine areas <1 m in elevation. This excludes land areas from the indicator and defines how far inland it extends. Merge all coastal relief model rasters (.nc format) together using QGIS "create virtual raster". Save merged raster to .tif and import into ArcPro. Reclassify the NOAA coastal relief model data to assign a value of 1 to areas from deep marine to 1 m elevation. Assign all other areas (land) a value of 0. Convert the raster produced above to vector using the "RasterToPolygon" tool. Clip to the 2024 Blueprint subregions using "Pairwise Clip" tool. Hand-edit to remove terrestrial polygons (one large terrestrial and Delmarva peninsula). Dissolve the resulting data layer to produce a seamless polygon defining marine and estuarine areas <1 m in elevation. Hand edit to select all but main marine polygon and delete. Define the extent of the Gulf version of this indicator to separate it from the Atlantic. This split reflects the extent of the different datasets available to represent coral and hardbottom habitat in the Gulf and the Atlantic rather than reflecting a meaningful ecological transition. Buffer the "South Florida/Bahamian Shelf" Level III marine ecoregion by 25 km to extend it far enough inland to intersect the inland edge of the <1 m elevation layer. Convert the two NOAA Atlantic hardbottom suitability datasets from raster to vector and dissolve to create a polygon representing the extent of those datasets. Merge the buffered ecoregion with the combined NOAA extent polygon. Hand-edit to extract the resulting line between the Gulf and the Atlantic. Hand-edit to apply this line to the <1 m elevation layer created earlier in the mapping steps and split the Gulf and Atlantic extent. From the BOEM seismic water bottom anomaly 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, merge anomaly_confirmed_relic_patchreefs.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_organisms.shp, seep_anomaly_confirmed_corals.shp, and seep_anomaly_confirmed_hydrate.shp and assign a value of 6. To create a class of predicted BOEM features, merge the remaining extracted shapefiles and assign a value of 3. From usSEABED sediments data, use the field "gom_domnc" to extract polygons: rock (dominant and<s></s>subdominant) receives a value of 2 and gravel (dominant and subdominant) receives a value of 1. From the wrecks database, extract locations having "high" and "medium" confidence (positionQuality = "high" and positionQuality = "medium"). Buffer these locations by 150 m and assign a value of 4. 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). Merge artificial reef point locations from FL, AL, MS and TX. Buffer these locations by 150 m. Merge this file with the three LA artificial reef polygons and assign a value of 5. From the NOAA deep-sea coral and sponge point locations, select all points. Buffer the point locations by 150 m and assign a value of 7. From the FWC coral and hardbottom dataset polygon locations, assign coral reefs a value of 7, hardbottom a value of 6, hardbottom with seagrass a value of 6, and probable hardbottom a value of 3. Hand edit to remove an erroneous hardbottom polygon off of Matagorda Island, TX, resulting from a mistake by Sheridan and Caldwell (2002) when they digitized a DOI sediment map. This error is documented on page 6 of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council's 5-Year Review of the Final Generic Amendment Number 3. From the TNC SABMA data, select all polygons withTEXT_DESC = '01. mapped hard bottom area' and assign a value of 6. Union all of the above datasets together and assign final indicator values. For overlapping polygons, this value will represent the maximum value at a given location. Clip the unioned polygon dataset to the buffered marine subregions. Convert the polygon dataset to raster using GDAL "rasterize". Fill NoData cells with zeroes and, using Extract by Mask, mask the resulting raster with the Gulf indicator extent. Adding zero values helps users better understand the extent of this indicator and to make this indicator layer perform better in online tools. Export the final dataset as an unsigned 8-bit integer raster to ArcPro. Create the raster attribute table using the legend values below. As a final step, clip to the spatial extent of Southeast Blueprint 2024. Final indicator values Indicator values are assigned as follows: 7 = Confirmed hardbottom-associated species (e.g., corals, sponges, patch reef, chemosynthetic communities)6 = Confirmed natural hardbottom5 = Artificial reefs4 = Shipwrecks3 = Probable natural hardbottom (fine resolution)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 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 shipwrecks class does not account for variation in the condition of submerged structures, such as "black reef" phenomena caused by pollution and invasive species growth around contaminated shipwrecks (Degnarain 2020). This indicator may underprioritize hardbottom and coral habitat in the eastern Gulf of Mexico due to limited data availability. According to the Florida State University Marine Lab, "Most deep-sea research in the Gulf of Mexico has targeted areas important to the oil and gas industry...This research has resulted in significant contributions to the discovery and in some cases the protection of hard bottom and deep-sea reefs. In contrast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico remains relatively unexplored. In fact, it is perhaps the least explored region of the Gulf. Therefore, there is a limited amount of data on their distributions..." This issue particularly impacts the confirmed hardbottom-associated species and predicted fine-resolution hardbottom classes because the BOEM seismic anomalies dataset is limited to the BOEM central and western planning areas in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, this dataset does not cover state and federal waters around Florida, or other state waters across the Gulf. This indicator underrepresents coral and hardbottom habitat within 3 Gulf deepwater coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (Steamboat Lumps, The Edges,Madison Swanson) where finer scale data on coral and hardbottom is lacking. We hope to improve coverage within these HAPCs in future updates. Literature Cited Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Artificial Reefs 2023. Microsoft Excel file. Accessed December 19, 2023. [https://www.outdooralabama.com/saltwater-fishing/artificial-reefs]. Commission for Environmental Cooperation. 2009. Marine Ecoregions of North America, 2008. Vector digital data. Montréal, Québec, Canada. [https://www.cec.org/north-american-environmental­atlas/marine-ecoregions-level-iii/]. 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]. 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]. 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/]. Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP) (2016). Observations of Deep-Sea Coral and Sponge Occurrences from the NOAA National Deep-Sea Coral and Sponge Database, 1842-Present, version 20230620-0 (NCEI Accession 0145037). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. [https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/0145037]. Accessed December 20, 2023. 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]. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. Coral and Hard Bottom Habitats Florida. Vector digital data. Published March 12, 2015. Accessed December 19, 2023. [https://geodata.myfwc.com/datasets/myfwc::coral-and-hard-bottom-habitats-in-florida/about]. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Artificial Reefs: Download Reef Locations. Microsoft Excel file. Accessed December 19, 2023. [https://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/artificial-reefs/locate/]. Florida State University Marine Lab. Coleman and Koenig Research: Hard Bottom Reefs of the West Florida Shelf. "Oil Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico." Accessed March 20, 2024. [https://marinelab.fsu.edu/labs/coleman/research/shelf-edge/]. Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. October 2010. Final Report: 5-Year Review of the Final Generic Amendment Number 3 Addressing Essential Fish Habitat Requirements, Habitat Areas of Particular Concern, and Adverse Effects of Fishing in the Fishery Management Plans of the Gulf of Mexico. [https://gulfcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/EFH-5-Year-Review-Final-10-10.pdf]. 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]. 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]. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Artificial Reefs: Inshore Artificial Reefs, Nearshore Artificial Reefs, Offshore and Deepwater Artificial Reefs. Google Earth/KML files. Accessed December 19, 2023. [https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/artificial-reefs]. Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Artificial Reef Bureau. Inshore Reefs, Offshore Reefs, Rigs to Reef. Lat/long coordinates. Accessed December 19, 2023. [https://dmr.ms.gov/artificial-reef/]. 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]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. (2023). Coastal Relief Models (CRMs) [Data set]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. [doi: 10.25921/5ZN5-KN44]. 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]. Office for Coastal Management, 2023: Wrecks and Obstructions. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. [https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/70439]. 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]. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.The Artificial Reefs Interactive Mapping Application. Accessed December 19, 2023. [https://tpwd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=644a45d5b75b4881b1fbb6c42bdd09d4]. 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:

2024

Date Issued:

2024-05-01

Place:

United States

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:

2024-05-23