Benthic Habitats of Buck Island Reef National Monument

Costa, Bryan; Tormey, Sam; Battista, Timothy

Benthic habitat mapping data and report for Buck Island Reef National Monument (BUIS), created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Branch with support from the National Park Service (NPS). In the report BUIS is referred to as BIRNM. Due to the range of water depths at BUIS, three types of remote sensing technologies and six sensors were used to gather data: a passive optical aerial sensor, a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor, and four Multibeam Echosounder (MBES) Sound Navigation and Ranging (SoNAR) sensors. This was the first time data were gathered for moderate-depth and deep waters of BUIS. The study area (BUIS) was stratified into five regions based on spatial extents and spatial resolutions of the sensors used to collect the data: 1) aerial, 2) shallow, 3) moderate shelf, 4) moderate and 5) deep. Benthic habitat was classified and delineated separately for each of the five regions. NOAA's Biogeography Branch (BB) developed a hybrid approach for habitat delineation, which used semi-automatic classification and visual interpretation techniques. The results were then combined to produce three separate benthic habitat maps based on water depth: shallow (0 - 50m), moderate (50 - 1000m) and deep (1000 - 1830m). In total, 198 unique combinations of habitat classes describing the geography, geology and biology of the seafloor were identified. Project deliverables include a Final Report, ArcMap GIS Project File (*.mxd), and benthic habitat maps for the three depth zones.