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2023 Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Long-Term Monitoring of the Coral Reef Caps of East Flower Garden Bank and West Flower Garden Bank (NCEI Accession 0306920)

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Metadata Last Checked: October 04, 2025 | Last Modified: 2025-09-17T00:00:00.000+00:00

This dataset contains raw and processed data from an annual long-term monitoring program documenting fish and benthic community observations, along with water quality measurements, at East Flower Garden Bank (EFGB) and West Flower Garden Bank (WFGB). These two sites are part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS), located in the northwestern Gulf of America. Monitoring began in 1989 and is funded by FGBNMS and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, with support from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. EFGB and WFGB are coral reef-capped features that form part of a discontinuous arc of reef environments along the outer continental shelf. They rise from salt dome formations located approximately 190 km south of the Texas-Louisiana border and include habitats ranging from 16 to 166 meters in depth. The shallow bank caps lie within the photic zone and support diverse coral, algal, invertebrate, and fish communities, many of which are shared with Caribbean reef systems. Benthic community data are derived from benthic photo analysis using Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe). Fish surveys are conducted annually using a modified Bohnsack and Bannerot stationary point count method, and results are recorded in Excel spreadsheets. Water quality parameters (e.g., temperature, salinity, turbidity, nutrients) are obtained from moored conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) instruments, water samples, and quarterly profiling of the water column. Temperature and salinity records are reduced to daily averages for long-term trend analysis.

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0306920 AMMONIA (NH3) ARAGONITE SATURATION STATE BENTHIC SPECIES BIOCHEMISTRY biological data CARBON - CARBONATE CHLOROPHYLL A CORAL CORAL - BLEACHING CORAL - CENSUS CORAL - SPECIES IDENTIFICATION DELTA CARBON-13 DEPTH - OBSERVATION DISSOLVED INORGANIC CARBON (DIC) DISSOLVED OXYGEN Fish FISH - CORAL REEF FISH SPECIES FLUORESCENCE LATITUDE LONGITUDE NITRATE NITRITE NITROGEN PARTICULATE CARBON pH SALINITY SPECIES - PERCENT OCCURRENCE species abundance SPECIES IDENTIFICATION SPECIES IDENTIFICATION - COUNT SPONGE SPECIES IDENTIFICATION total alkalinity Total nitrogen TOTAL PHOSPHORUS turbidity WATER TEMPERATURE buoy - moored buoy CTD CTD - moored CTD Niskin bottle photograph swimmer/diver temperature sensor turbidity sensor in situ laboratory analyses Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary CORAL REEF STUDIES LONG TERM MONITORING EAST-WEST FLOWER GARDEN BANKS Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Gulf of America Gulf of Mexico oceanography DOC/NOAA/NOS/NMS > National Marine Sanctuaries, National Ocean Service, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce EARTH SCIENCE > AGRICULTURE > ANIMAL SCIENCE > ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES > SPONGES EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > FISH EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOSYSTEMS > MARINE ECOSYSTEMS > BENTHIC EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > COASTAL PROCESSES > CORAL REEFS > CORAL BLEACHING EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > ALKALINITY EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > AMMONIA EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > CARBON EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > CARBONATE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > CHLOROPHYLL EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > INORGANIC CARBON EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > NITRATE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > NITRITE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > NITROGEN EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > OXYGEN EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN CHEMISTRY > PH EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN OPTICS > FLUORESCENCE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN OPTICS > TURBIDITY EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN TEMPERATURE > WATER TEMPERATURE EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > SALINITY/DENSITY > SALINITY EARTH SCIENCE > SOLID EARTH > GEOMORPHIC LANDFORMS/PROCESSES > COASTAL LANDFORMS > CORAL REEFS BENTHIC SPECIES (RANDOM TRANSECT) BENTHIC SPECIES (REPETITIVE PHOTOSTATIONS) BENTHIC SPECIES - TAXA COUNTS (URCHIN AND LOBSTER REEF CREST) FISH CENSUS (REEF CREST) WATER QUALITY (MOORED) WATER QUALITY (PROFILES) WATER QUALITY (SAMPLES) WATER QUALITY (SOFAR OCEAN SPOTTER BUOY) CTD > Conductivity, Temperature, Depth NISKIN BOTTLES TEMPERATURE SENSORS > TEMPERATURE SENSORS TURBIDITY METERS > TURBIDITY METERS Sofar buoy M/V Fling R/V Manta OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF AMERICA OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > GULF OF MEXICO Northwest Gulf of Mexico JT507T

Complete Metadata

describedByType	application/octet-steam
identifier	gov.noaa.nodc:0306920
issued	2025-09-17T00:00:00.000+00:00
landingPage	https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact
language	[]
references	[ "https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/conservation/longterm-monitoring-east-west-fgb.html" ]
rights	otherRestrictions
spatial	-93.58,27.84,-93.84,27.94
temporal	2023-01-01T00:00:00+00:00/2023-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

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