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  • NOAA Shallow-Water Benthic Habitats: CNMI: Farallon de Pajaros

    Metadata Updated: November 12, 2020

    Benthic habitat maps for the nearshore, shallow (< 30 m) coastal waters of the island of Farallon de Pajaros in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) produced these data to support coral reef research and management. Habitat regions were digitally identified using visual interpretation of orthorectified satellite imagery with a minimum mapping unit (MMU) of approximately 1 acre. Includes biological cover types, geomorphological structure types, and geographic zones.

    Eighteen distinct and non-overlapping biological cover types were identified. Habitats or features that cover areas smaller than the minimal mapping unit of 1 acre were not considered. For example, uncolonized sand halos surrounding coral patch reefs are too small to be mapped independently. Cover type refers only to the predominant biological component colonizing the surface of the feature and does not address location (e.g., on the shelf or in the lagoon). The cover types are defined in a collapsible hierarchy ranging from eight major classes (live coral, seagrass, macroalgae, encrusting/coralline algae, turf algae, emergent vegetation, uncolonized, and unknown), combined with a density modifier representing the percentage of the predominant cover type (10%-<50% sparse, 50%-<90% patchy, 90%-100% continuous).

    Similarly, 14 distinct and non-overlapping geomorphological structure types were identified. The structure types are defined in a collapsible hierarchy ranging from four major classes (coral reef and hardbottom, unconsolidated sediment, other delineations, and unknown), to thirteen detailed classes: sand, mud, spur and groove, individual and aggregated patch reef, aggregate reef, scattered coral/rock in unconsolidated sediment, pavement, rock/boulder (volcanic and carbonate), reef rubble, pavement with sand channels, artificial, and unknown.

    Lastly, 13 mutually exclusive geographic zones were identified from land to open water corresponding to typical insular shelf and coral reef geomorphology. These zones include: shoreline intertidal, vertical wall (none identified), lagoon, back reef, reef flat, reef crest, fore reef, bank/shelf, bank/shelf escarpment, channel, dredged (since this condition eliminates natural geomorphology), unknown, and land. Zone refers only to each benthic community's location and does not address substrate or cover types within. For example, the lagoon zone may include patch reefs, sand, and seagrass beds; however, these are considered structural elements that may or may not occur within the lagoon zone and therefore, are not used to define it.

    Access & Use Information

    License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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    Dates

    Metadata Date November 22, 2017
    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date November 12, 2020
    Reference Date(s) November 22, 2017 (creation), November 22, 2017 (issued), November 22, 2017 (revision)
    Frequency Of Update

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from ioos

    Graphic Preview

    Sample image.

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date November 22, 2017
    Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
    Metadata Updated Date November 12, 2020
    Reference Date(s) November 22, 2017 (creation), November 22, 2017 (issued), November 22, 2017 (revision)
    Responsible Party NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) (Point of Contact)
    Contact Email
    Guid mp_noaa_fdp_benthic_habitats
    Access Constraints
    Bbox East Long 144.908609544198
    Bbox North Lat 20.5582389529951
    Bbox South Lat 20.5310474351642
    Bbox West Long 144.880757205427
    Coupled Resource [{"href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": [], "title": []}, {"href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": [], "title": []}, {"href": ["#DataIdentification"], "uuid": [], "title": []}]
    Frequency Of Update
    Graphic Preview Description Sample image.
    Graphic Preview File http://pacioos.org/metadata/browse/mp_noaa_fdp_benthic_habitats.png
    Licence
    Metadata Language eng
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Progress
    Spatial Data Service Type Open Geospatial Consortium Web Feature Service (WFS)
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True

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