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Bioassessment Tools for Stony Corals: Monitoring Approaches and Proposed Sampling Plan for the U.S. Virgin Islands
Citation:
Fore, L., W. S. FISHER, AND W. DAVIS. Bioassessment Tools for Stony Corals: Monitoring Approaches and Proposed Sampling Plan for the U.S. Virgin Islands. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/260/R-06/003, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
The proposed sampling plans provides a framework for allocating sampling effort proportionally among the management questions of greatest concern and can be modified as needed.
Description:
This document describes three general approaches to the design of a sampling plan for biological monitoring of coral reefs. Status assessment, trend detection and targeted monitoring each require a different approach to site selection and statistical analysis. For status assessment, coral reef stations should be sampled randomly each year to assess the current condition of the resource. For trend assessment, the initial selection of sites should be random but the same sites should be sampled on each occasion, either annually or as part of a rotating panel of sites. For the case of targeted sampling, a specific issue or situation needs to be assessed and random sampling will not be the best approach when only a small number of stations (e.g., ~ 50) can be visited each year. Instead, specific locations should be selected based on their site condition, proximity to disturbance or other features of interest.
URLs/Downloads:
Bioassessment Tools for Stony Corals: Monitoring Approaches and Proposed Sampling Plan for the U.S. Virgin Islands