Benthic Cover

At each site, benthic cover surveys are conducted annually along six 10 m long permanent transects marked with steel or brass rods. Video sampling consists of one diver traversing each transect videotaping the benthic cover using a high definition digital video recorder.

After taping, images from each transect are captured and imported into RStudio where twenty randomly allocated points are superimposed on each image. Analysis consists of identifying the substrate located under each point. For each transect, the percent cover of coral, epilithic algae (EAC), macroalgae, sponges, gorgonians, and sand/sediment are calculated by dividing the number of random dots falling on that substrate type by the total number of dots for that transect.

The TCRMP benthic cover data set is available for download here.