Attributes {
 s {
  date {
    String bcodmo_name "date";
    String description "Date sampling occurred; mm/dd/yy";
    String long_name "Date";
    String nerc_identifier "https://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P01/current/ADATAA01/";
    String units "unitless";
  }
  latitude {
    String _CoordinateAxisType "Lat";
    Float64 _FillValue NaN;
    Float64 actual_range 18.3166, 18.3166;
    String axis "Y";
    String bcodmo_name "latitude";
    Float64 colorBarMaximum 90.0;
    Float64 colorBarMinimum -90.0;
    String description "Latitude; N is positive";
    String ioos_category "Location";
    String long_name "Latitude";
    String nerc_identifier "https://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P09/current/LATX/";
    String standard_name "latitude";
    String units "degrees_north";
  }
  longitude {
    String _CoordinateAxisType "Lon";
    Float64 _FillValue NaN;
    Float64 actual_range -64.72988, -64.72988;
    String axis "X";
    String bcodmo_name "longitude";
    Float64 colorBarMaximum 180.0;
    Float64 colorBarMinimum -180.0;
    String description "Longitude; W is positve";
    String ioos_category "Location";
    String long_name "Longitude";
    String nerc_identifier "https://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P09/current/LONX/";
    String standard_name "longitude";
    String units "degrees_east";
  }
  number {
    Int16 _FillValue 32767;
    Int16 actual_range 1, 171;
    String bcodmo_name "sample";
    Float64 colorBarMaximum 100.0;
    Float64 colorBarMinimum 0.0;
    String description "PI issued ID number for colony";
    String long_name "Number";
    String nerc_identifier "https://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P02/current/ACYC/";
    String units "unitless";
  }
  height {
    Float32 _FillValue NaN;
    Float32 actual_range 14.1, 56.0;
    String bcodmo_name "height";
    String description "Height of each colony was measured to the nearest centimeter.";
    String long_name "Height";
    String units "centimeters";
  }
  area {
    Float32 _FillValue NaN;
    Float32 actual_range 68.0, 2664.5;
    String bcodmo_name "surface_area";
    String description "Surface area of the colonies determined from images";
    String long_name "Area";
    String units "centimeters squared";
  }
  perimeter {
    Float32 _FillValue NaN;
    Float32 actual_range 39.7, 821.8;
    String bcodmo_name "unknown";
    String description "Perimeter of colonies determined from images";
    String long_name "Perimeter";
    String units "centimeters";
  }
  interaction {
    Byte _FillValue 127;
    String _Unsigned "false";
    Byte actual_range 0, 1;
    String bcodmo_name "behav_code";
    String description "0=no interaction between colonies; 1= colony-colony interaction";
    String long_name "Interaction";
    String units "unitless";
  }
  AsymSym {
    Byte _FillValue 127;
    String _Unsigned "false";
    Byte actual_range 0, 1;
    String bcodmo_name "sample_descrip";
    String description "0=symetric colony; 1=asymetric colony";
    String long_name "Asym Sym";
    String units "unitless";
  }
 }
  NC_GLOBAL {
    String access_formats ".htmlTable,.csv,.json,.mat,.nc,.tsv,.esriCsv,.geoJson";
    String acquisition_description "Methodology\\u00a0from\\u00a0Gambrel, B.\\u00a0and\\u00a0Lasker, H.R., 2016
 
While colony asymmetry was observed in many species, the planar form of
G.\\u00a0ventalina\\u00a0was particularly conducive to quantifying colony size
and asymmetry. The surface areas of both symmetric and asymmetric
G.\\u00a0ventalina\\u00a0colonies were measured to evaluate the extent of
asymmetry. We did not distinguish between\\u00a0intra- and\\u00a0inter-
specific\\u00a0competitive interactions with asymmetric
G.\\u00a0ventalina\\u00a0since our goal was to compare the sizes of asymmetric
and symmetric colonies.
 
We sampled at Europa Bay, where similar numbers of symmetric and asymmetric
G.\\u00a0ventalina\\u00a0colonies were found. We searched for
G.\\u00a0ventalina\\u00a0within the same 500 m2 area as the belt transects, and
we selected colonies based on their health (colonies overgrown with algae
or\\u00a0hydrocorals\\u00a0were excluded from the study), size class (15\\u221224
cm, 25\\u221234 cm and 35\\u221244 cm tall) and the presence or absence of
asymmetry, since we wanted similar numbers of colonies in each category. A
total of 142 G.\\u00a0ventalina\\u00a0colonies (78 symmetric and 64 asymmetric)
were photographed. Each image included a 1 m2 quadrat and a ruler.";
    String awards_0_award_nid "562090";
    String awards_0_award_number "OCE-1334052";
    String awards_0_data_url "http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1334052";
    String awards_0_funder_name "NSF Division of Ocean Sciences";
    String awards_0_funding_acronym "NSF OCE";
    String awards_0_funding_source_nid "355";
    String awards_0_program_manager "David L. Garrison";
    String awards_0_program_manager_nid "50534";
    String cdm_data_type "Other";
    String comment "Gorgonia Asymmetry Data from Europa Bay 
  Howard Lasker, PI 
  Version 14 October 2016";
    String Conventions "COARDS, CF-1.6, ACDD-1.3";
    String creator_email "info@bco-dmo.org";
    String creator_name "BCO-DMO";
    String creator_type "institution";
    String creator_url "https://www.bco-dmo.org/";
    String data_source "extract_data_as_tsv version 2.3  19 Dec 2019";
    String date_created "2016-10-25T18:17:58Z";
    String date_modified "2019-04-18T17:51:36Z";
    String defaultDataQuery "&time<now";
    String doi "10.1575/1912/bco-dmo.662645.1";
    Float64 Easternmost_Easting -64.72988;
    Float64 geospatial_lat_max 18.3166;
    Float64 geospatial_lat_min 18.3166;
    String geospatial_lat_units "degrees_north";
    Float64 geospatial_lon_max -64.72988;
    Float64 geospatial_lon_min -64.72988;
    String geospatial_lon_units "degrees_east";
    String history "2024-11-08T09:01:56Z (local files)
2024-11-08T09:01:56Z https://erddap.bco-dmo.org/erddap/tabledap/bcodmo_dataset_662645.das";
    String infoUrl "https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/662645";
    String institution "BCO-DMO";
    String keywords "area, asym, AsymSym, bco, bco-dmo, biological, chemical, data, dataset, date, dmo, erddap, height, interaction, latitude, longitude, management, number, oceanography, office, perimeter, preliminary, sym";
    String license "https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/662645/license";
    String metadata_source "https://www.bco-dmo.org/api/dataset/662645";
    Float64 Northernmost_Northing 18.3166;
    String param_mapping "{'662645': {'lat': 'master - latitude', 'lon': 'master - longitude'}}";
    String parameter_source "https://www.bco-dmo.org/mapserver/dataset/662645/parameters";
    String people_0_affiliation "State University of New York at Buffalo";
    String people_0_affiliation_acronym "SUNY Buffalo";
    String people_0_person_name "Howard Lasker";
    String people_0_person_nid "562092";
    String people_0_role "Principal Investigator";
    String people_0_role_type "originator";
    String people_1_affiliation "Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution";
    String people_1_affiliation_acronym "WHOI BCO-DMO";
    String people_1_person_name "Hannah Ake";
    String people_1_person_nid "650173";
    String people_1_role "BCO-DMO Data Manager";
    String people_1_role_type "related";
    String project "St. John LTREB,VI Octocorals";
    String projects_0_acronym "St. John LTREB";
    String projects_0_description "Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) in US Virgin Islands:
From the NSF award abstract:
In an era of growing human pressures on natural resources, there is a critical need to understand how major ecosystems will respond, the extent to which resource management can lessen the implications of these responses, and the likely state of these ecosystems in the future. Time-series analyses of community structure provide a vital tool in meeting these needs and promise a profound understanding of community change. This study focuses on coral reef ecosystems; an existing time-series analysis of the coral community structure on the reefs of St. John, US Virgin Islands, will be expanded to 27 years of continuous data in annual increments. Expansion of the core time-series data will be used to address five questions: (1) To what extent is the ecology at a small spatial scale (1-2 km) representative of regional scale events (10's of km)? (2) What are the effects of declining coral cover in modifying the genetic population structure of the coral host and its algal symbionts? (3) What are the roles of pre- versus post-settlement events in determining the population dynamics of small corals? (4) What role do physical forcing agents (other than temperature) play in driving the population dynamics of juvenile corals? and (5) How are populations of other, non-coral invertebrates responding to decadal-scale declines in coral cover? Ecological methods identical to those used over the last two decades will be supplemented by molecular genetic tools to understand the extent to which declining coral cover is affecting the genetic diversity of the corals remaining. An information management program will be implemented to create broad access by the scientific community to the entire data set.
The importance of this study lies in the extreme longevity of the data describing coral reefs in a unique ecological context, and the immense potential that these data possess for understanding both the patterns of comprehensive community change (i.e., involving corals, other invertebrates, and genetic diversity), and the processes driving them. Importantly, as this project is closely integrated with resource management within the VI National Park, as well as larger efforts to study coral reefs in the US through the NSF Moorea Coral Reef LTER, it has a strong potential to have scientific and management implications that extend further than the location of the study.
The following publications and data resulted from this project:
2015    Edmunds PJ, Tsounis G, Lasker HR (2015) Differential distribution of octocorals and scleractinians around St. John and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Hydrobiologia. doi: 10.1007/s10750-015-2555-zoctocoral - sp. abundance and distributionDownload complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2015    Lenz EA, Bramanti L, Lasker HR, Edmunds PJ. Long-term variation of octocoral populations in St. John, US Virgin Islands. Coral Reefs DOI 10.1007/s00338-015-1315-xoctocoral survey - densitiesoctocoral counts - photoquadrats vs. insitu surveyoctocoral literature reviewDownload complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2015   Privitera-Johnson, K., et al., Density-associated recruitment in octocoral communities in St. John, US Virgin Islands, J.Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. DOI 10.1016/j.jembe.2015.08.006octocoral recruitmentDownload complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2014    Edmunds PJ. Landscape-scale variation in coral reef community structure in the United States Virgin Islands. Marine Ecology Progress Series 509: 137?152. DOI 10.3354/meps10891.
Data at MCR-VINP.
Download complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2014    Edmunds PJ, Nozawa Y, Villanueva RD.  Refuges modulate coral recruitment in the Caribbean and Pacific.  Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 454: 78-84. DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2014.02.00
Data at MCR-VINP.Download complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2014    Edmunds PJ, Gray SC.  The effects of storms, heavy rain, and sedimentation on the shallow coral reefs of St. John, US Virgin Islands.  Hydrobiologia 734(1):143-148.
Data at MCR-VINP.Download complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2014    Levitan, D, Edmunds PJ, Levitan K. What makes a species common? No evidence of density-dependent recruitment or mortality of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum after the 1983-1984 mass mortality.  Oecologia. DOI 10.1007/s00442-013-2871-9.
Data at MCR-VINP.Download complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2014    Lenz EA, Brown D, Didden C, Arnold A, Edmunds PJ.  The distribution of hermit crabs and their gastropod shells on shallow reefs in St. John, US Virgin Islands.  Bulletin of Marine Science 90(2):681-692. https://dx.doi.org/10.5343/bms.2013.1049
Data at MCR-VINP.Download complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2013    Edmunds PJ.  Decadal-scale changes in the community structure of coral reefs in St. John, US Virgin Islands.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 489: 107-123.
Data at MCR-VINP.Download complete data for this publication (zipped Excel files)
2013    Brown D, Edmunds PJ.  Long-term changes in the population dynamics of the Caribbean hydrocoral Millepora spp.  J. Exp Mar Biol Ecol 441: 62-70. doi: 10.1016/j.jembe.2013.01.013Millepora colony sizeMillepora cover - temps - storms 1992-2008Millepora cover 1992-2008seawater temperature USVI 1992-2008storms USVI 1992-2008Download complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2012    Brown D, Edmunds PJ. The hermit crab Calcinus tibicen lives commensally on Millepora spp. in St. John, United States Virgin Islands.  Coral Reefs 32: 127-135. doi: 10.1007/s00338-012-0948-2crab abundance and coral sizecrab displacement behaviorcrab nocturnal surveyscrab predator avoidanceDownload complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2011    Green DH, Edmunds PJ.  Spatio-temporal variability of coral recruitment on shallow reefs in St. John, US Virgin Islands.  Journal of Experimenal Marine Biology and Ecology 397: 220-229.
Data at MCR-VINP.Download complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2011    Colvard NB, Edmunds PJ. (2011) Decadal-scale changes in invertebrate abundances on a Caribbean coral reef.  Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 397(2): 153-160. doi: 10.1016/j.jembe.2010.11.015benthic invert codesinverts - Tektite and Yawzi Ptinverts - pooledDownload complete data for this publication (Excel file)";
    String projects_0_end_date "2014-04";
    String projects_0_geolocation "St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands; California State University Northridge";
    String projects_0_name "LTREB Long-term coral reef community dynamics in St. John, USVI: 1987-2019";
    String projects_0_project_nid "2272";
    String projects_0_project_website "http://coralreefs.csun.edu/";
    String projects_0_start_date "2009-05";
    String projects_1_acronym "VI Octocorals";
    String projects_1_description "The recent past has not been good for coral reefs, and journals have been filled with examples of declining coral cover, crashing fish populations, rising cover of macroalgae, and a future potentially filled with slime. However, reefs are more than the corals and fishes for which they are known best, and their biodiversity is affected strongly by other groups of organisms. The non-coral fauna of reefs is being neglected in the rush to evaluate the loss of corals and fishes, and this project will add on to an on-going long term ecological study by studying soft corals. This project will be focused on the ecology of soft corals on reefs in St. John, USVI to understand the Past, Present and the Future community structure of soft corals in a changing world. For the Past, the principal investigators will complete a retrospective analysis of octocoral abundance in St. John between 1992 and the present, as well as Caribbean-wide since the 1960's. For the Present, they will: (i) evaluate spatio-temporal changes between soft corals and corals, (ii) test for the role of competition with macroalgae and between soft corals and corals as processes driving the rising abundance of soft corals, and (iii) explore the role of soft corals as \"animal forests\" in modifying physical conditions beneath their canopy, thereby modulating recruitment dynamics. For the Future the project will conduct demographic analyses on key soft corals to evaluate annual variation in population processes and project populations into a future impacted by global climate change.
This project was funded to provide and independent \"overlay\" to the ongoing LTREB award (DEB-1350146, co-funded by OCE, PI Edmunds) focused on the long-term dynamics of coral reefs in St. John.
Note: This project is closely associated with the project \"RAPID: Resilience of Caribbean octocorals following Hurricanes Irma and Maria\". See: https://www.bco-dmo.org/project/749653.
The following publications and data resulted from this project:
2017 Tsounis, G., and P. J. Edmunds. Three decades of coral reef community dynamics in St. John, USVI: a contrast of scleractinians and octocorals. Ecosphere 8(1):e01646. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1646Rainfall and temperature dataCoral and macroalgae abundance and distributionDescriptions of hurricanes affecting St. John
2016 Gambrel, B. and Lasker, H.R. Marine Ecology Progress Series 546: 85?95, DOI: 10.3354/meps11670Colony to colony interactionsEunicea flexuosa interactionsGorgonia ventalina asymmetryNearest neighbor surveys
2015 Lenz EA, Bramanti L, Lasker HR, Edmunds PJ. Long-term variation of octocoral populations in St. John, US Virgin Islands. Coral Reefs DOI 10.1007/s00338-015-1315-xoctocoral survey - densitiesoctocoral counts - photoquadrats vs. insitu surveyoctocoral literature reviewDownload complete data for this publication (Excel file)
2015 Privitera-Johnson, K., et al., Density-associated recruitment in octocoral communities in St. John, US Virgin Islands, J.Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2015.08.006octocoral density dependenceDownload complete data for this publication (Excel file)
Other datasets related to this project:octocoral transects - adult colony height";
    String projects_1_end_date "2016-08";
    String projects_1_geolocation "St. John, US Virgin Islands:  18.3185, 64.7242";
    String projects_1_name "Ecology and functional biology of octocoral communities";
    String projects_1_project_nid "562086";
    String projects_1_project_website "http://coralreefs.csun.edu/";
    String projects_1_start_date "2013-09";
    String publisher_name "Biological and Chemical Oceanographic Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)";
    String publisher_type "institution";
    String sourceUrl "(local files)";
    Float64 Southernmost_Northing 18.3166;
    String standard_name_vocabulary "CF Standard Name Table v55";
    String subsetVariables "latitude,longitude";
    String summary "Data describing Gorgonia ventalina interactions on St. John, Virgin Islands in 2015.";
    String title "[Gorgonia ventalina asymmetry] - Data describing Gorgonia ventalina interactions on St. John, Virgin Islands in 2015. (LTREB Long-term coral reef community dynamics in St. John, USVI: 1987-2019)";
    String version "1";
    Float64 Westernmost_Easting -64.72988;
    String xml_source "osprey2erddap.update_xml() v1.3";
  }
}