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Marine habitat surveys in Honduras

Iliana Chollett, Smithsonian Institution


Andres Alegria, Centro de Estudios Marinos
September 2016

HND_marine_habitat_surveys
Type: point vector data
Datum: WGS84
EPSG: 4326
Extent: 15.122-17.419 N; 82.581-88.015W

Description: this layer contains information on 374 point surveys of marine benthic habitats carried
out in Honduras. The information was collated and summarized on a numeric database (csv file), a
shapefile and a google earth file (Figure 1). All input coordinates were assumed in WGS84 datum
(datum not given by data sources). Data was recorded ‘as is’ and any errors in original data (e.g.
misplaced coordinates) were left as the original database indicated. Data with suspected erroneous
location, however, were flagged (field ‘flag’, see Table I below).

The database is intended to be comprehensive in extent and include all information available in the
country. The database is not intended to be detailed in content but a quick reference to information
available in the area with pointers to data sources indicating where to obtain further information. All
source information is available in the folder “Data_sources/”. The database can be continuously
updated as new information becomes available.

The fields included in the file (Table I) are related to ID, location, date, information useful for habitat
classification (geographic zone, geomorphological structure and type of biological cover, as per Table
II), depth, rugosity, coral cover, methods for gathering the last two variables, and information on data
source. Values without information were indicated as “NA”.

Figure 1. In situ surveys conducted along the Honduran Caribbean contained in the spatial database
HND_marine_habitat_surveys
Table I. Information (fields) collected in database
Field Description
ID Unique identifier per dataset, site and date
ID_dataset Unique identifier per dataset
Data_source Short description of the dataset source
Latitude Latitude in decimal degrees by data provider
Longitude Longitude in decimal degrees by data provider
Code Site code given by data provider
Site_name Site name given by data provider
Area Geographic area name
Date Date of survey, if a range available in source document, first date given
Geog_zone Geographic zone habitat category, per Zitello et al. 2009 (Table II)
Geom_structure Geomorphological structure habitat category, per Zitello et al. 2009 (Table II)
Biol_cover Biological cover habitat category, per Zitello et al. 2009 (Table II)
Depth_m Depth in meters
Rugosity Rugosity
Coral_cover Coral cover (%)
Methods Method used in the field to collect rugosity and coral cover information
Reference Full reference of data source or data files
Internal_provider Name of contact who provided the data
A flag of “0” indicates no obvious issues with the coordinates of the dataset. A flag of “1”
Flag indicates issues with coordinates, either missing seconds or coordinates falling in land
Notes Any other relevant information

Table II. Habitat, zone classification according to Zitello et al. (2009)


Geographic zone Geomorphological structure Biological cover
Land Rock outcrop Algae
Salt pond Boulder Live coral
Shoreline intertidal Aggregate reef Coralline algae
Lagoon Individual patch reef Mangrove
Reef flat Aggregate patch reefs Seagrass
Back reef Spur and groove No cover
Reef crest Pavement Unknown
Fore reef Pavement with sand channels
Bank/shelf Reef rubble
Escarpment Rhodoliths
Channel Unconsolidated sediment
Dredged Unknown
Unknown

Description of the datasets included

(1) AGRRA 2006 – 61 sites along Bay Islands, Cayos Cochinos, Tela and Puerto Cortes
Data extracted from report (Fonseca 2006)
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: coral
Also in report: additional sampling (time, number of surveyors, transects, quadrats) and biotic
information (colonies per transect, recruits, dominant corals, cover of main benthic groups, number of
damselfish gardens and Diadema, relative abundance of fishes)
Source file: Fonseca_2006_AGRRA.pdf
Notes:
 Their field ‘Geomorphology’ was a mixture of both geographic zone and geomorphological
structure, therefore the fields are mix and match.

(2) AGRRA 2009-2012 – 69 sites along Bay Islands, Tela, Cayos Cochinos and Swan Islands
Data extracted from AGRRA source Excel files
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: coral
Also in database: other data collected by the AGRRA protocol
Source folder: 2012 AGRRA Products-MAR/
Notes:
 Their field ‘Geomorphology’ was a mixture of both geographic zone and geomorphological
structure, therefore the fields are mix and match.
 These files (obtained at a later date) also included data from 2006, which I didn’t use because
I had already included that information from dataset 1.
 Data was extracted from the books ‘ReliefBySite’ and ‘CoralCoverBySite’

(3) AGRRA 2013-2014 – 33 sites along Swan Islands, Tela and Cayos Cochinos
Data extracted from Excel file
Internal provider: Ian Drysdale
Site main biological cover: coral
Also in file: summaries for other data collected by the AGRRA protocol
Source file: Honduras Sites for Iliana Nov 2015.xlsx
Notes:
 Their field ‘Geomorphology’ was a mixture of both geographic zone and geomorphological
structure, therefore the fields are mix and match.

(4) SAM 2005 – 10 sites with coordinates in Cayos Cochinos and Utila
Data extracted from source file with description of sites
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: coral, seagrass, mangrove
Also in database: for reef sites: benthic point intercept data; coral species data (diameter, height,
mortality, diseases and bleaching); fish species and length category data. For seagrass sites: biomass;
leaf index. For mangrove sites: species; structure; seedlings; salinity
Source folder: SAM_2005/

(5) Drysdale 2015 – 5 sites along Trujillo


Data extracted from report (Drysdale 2015)
Internal provider: Ian Drysdale
Site main biological cover: coral
Also in report: Data summaries of AGRRA surveys, but because they are not by site it’s not possible
to extract specific values.
Source file: Drysdale_2015_Reporte Evaluacion Arrecifes Trujillo.pdf

(6) Alegria and Perez 2015 – 26 sites along Cuero y Salado


Data extracted from report (Alegria and Perez 2015)
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: coral, algae, no cover
Also in report: relative rugosity (low/medium/high)
Source file: Arrecifes Cuero y Salado (DRAFT-AA-DICO7).docx

(7) Alegria and Perez 2007 – 14 sites along Tela


Data extracted from report (Alegria and Perez 2007)
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: sand
Source file: Alegria_2007_BahiadeTela.doc

(8) WWF Media Luna - 6 sites along Media Luna Reef (Misquito Cays)
Data extracted from report (Rodriguez and Cupul 2009)
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: coral
Also in report: fish species present, fish biomass, cover of main benthic groups, density of urchins and
lobsters
Source file: Rodriguez_2009_WWF_MediaLuna.pdf
Notes
 Values for rugosity and depth were extracted from a figure

(9) SI Misquito Cays – 14 sites along the Misquito Cays


Data extracted from summary excel files
Internal provider: Stephen Box (summary coral cover) and Iliana Chollett (coordinates and depth)
Site main biological cover: coral
Also in excel file: percent cover main benthic groups
Source files: Miskito_2013_fieldtrip_coordinates.xlsx; Miskito_2013_Steve_field_averages.xlsx
Notes:
 Complete AGRRA surveys were conducted at each sites but summary data only has coral
cover. Other data in very raw format is available in folder “Miskito_2013_AGRRA/”

(10) Hay 1984 – 2 sites in the Misquito Cays


Data extracted from paper (Hay 1984)
Internal provider: Iliana Chollett
Site main biological cover: coral
Also in paper: sea urchin density, herbivory rates
Source file: Hay_1984_grazing_caribbean_reefs.pdf
Notes:
 Coordinates in paper in degrees and minutes, no seconds (indicated in the ‘notes’ field),
Therefore flag=1

(11) PMAIB 2000 – 82 sites along the Bay Islands


Data extracted from report (Bouchon et al. 2000)
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: coral and seagrass
Also in file: unprocessed CARICOMP data for stations (fish abundance, benthic cover by group for
reefs and new leaves, old growth, old standing crop, productivity, turnover and number of shoots for
seagrass beds)
Source file: 2000 CARICOMP (PMAIB).pdf
Notes:
 Many depths given in ranges, annotated the mean, and range in the ‘notes’ field.
 Zone “outer reef slope” was substituted by “fore reef”. “outer reef slope (wall)” was
substituted by “outer reef slope”. “reef front and reef flat” was substituted by “reef flat”.
These edits are reflected in the “notes” field

(12) PMAIB 2008 -38 sites along the Bay Islands


Data extracted from report (Portillo 2008)
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: coral
Source file: 2008 CARICOMP Honduras comparacion.pdf
Notes
 No explicit dates for samplings, just that they were collected between 2007 and 2008
 Zone translations: “Meseta arrecifal” =“reef flat”; “Pendiente externa Arrecifal” = “Fore
reef”; “Pendiente externa Arrecifal (pared)” = “Fore reef”
 A Geog_zone of ‘pinnacle’ was added to the categories described in Table II
 No raw data in report, but raw excel files for sites G8, R1, R9 and U1 in folder “2008
CARICOMP Honduras/”
 Geomorphological maps for three small areas are presented in Fig 13 and 48

(13) CCC 2001 – 14 sites along Utila


Data extracted from report (Young et al. 2001)
Internal provider: Andres Alegria
Site main biological cover: coral
Source file: 2001 CCC Utila Reef Chek Report.pdf
Also available in report: cover of other benthic classes, coral species richness, diversity and evenness,
mean abundance of fish and invertebrates

Notes – desirable but not obtained so far


 AGRRA 2014 data for the Bay Islands, missing from database sent by Ian Dryesdle
 Drysdale 2015 locations for attempted AGRRA sites, where reefs were not found in Trujillo
 Drysdale 2015 data on coral cover and rugosity, not available in report
 Roger Flores data for Omoa (available according to Andres)
 AGRRA 2015 and 2016 – requested to Mayra

Notes – Documents revised but information not included in the database (all in folder
“Data_sources_not_used/”
 Report by Perez 2007 supplied by Andres Alegria with data for three sites in the Swan
Islands. The coordinates come in a weird format (neither geographic nor UTM). Source file:
arrecife coralino de islas del cisne –completo.doc
 KMZ file ‘Acropora (AMATELA).kmz’ supplied by Andres Alegria – with point data and
number of Acropora colonies per point along Punta Sal (Bahia de Tela)
 Report by Enoc Burgos “2011 Humedales Trujillo Guaimoreto.pdf” with information on
substrate type and biological cover (e.g. sand, algae mats, sponges, coral) on 7 transects along
the Trujillo coast of about 700 m each. Interesting information – Check section 8- but is not
georeferenced (maps and photos are provided though)
 Reportf on Coral Cay’s Conservation mapping of Utila, because there is no raw data (file
“2001 CCC Utila Habitat Mapping.pdf”). If data looks interesting, I could contact the first
author, but note that this was produced by volunteers
 The PMAIB collected ortofotos for all the islands (I have not been able to get information on
exact source details though), which are available. If you want to have a copy let me know.

References
Bouchon C, Y Bouchon-Navaro, S de Lavigne, M Louis, W Thompson. 2000. Los ecosistemas
marinos y costeros de las islas de la Bahia. Informe Tecnico Preliminar No AMC 01.
Proyecto Manejo Ambiental de las Islas de la Bahia. 104 pp.
Drysdale 2015. Proyecto impulsando el manejo integrado del Refugio de Vida Silvestre Laguna de
Guaimoreto en Trujillo, Honduras. Reporte 15p.
Alegria A, H Perez. 2007. Obtención de Muestras de Arena en Bahía de Tela. Reporte presentado a O
Torres y S Romero. 6 p.
Alegria A, C Perez. 2015. Exploración de arrecifes coralinos en el Refugio de Vida Silvestre Barras
de Cuero y Salado. Reporte CEM. 11 p.
Fonseca A. 2006. Rapid Reef Assessment of Guatemala and Honduras sites in the MAR region
towards the identification of bleaching resilient and resistant reefs. TNC report 86 p.
Hay ME. 1984. Patterns of fish and urchin grazing on Caribbean coral reefs:Are previous results
typical? Ecology 65:446–454
Perez HI. 2007. Arrecife Coralino en Swan Islands, Honduras. Instituto Hondureño de Turismo y la
Dirección de Biodiversidad Report. 12 p.
Portillo P. 2008. Complemento al diagnostic Arrecifal y studio temporal de las estaciones de
monitoreo Arrecifal de West End Wall, Roatan y Turtle Harbour, Utila (1999-2002/2007-
2008). Programa de Manejo Ambiental de las Islas de la Bahia. 167 pp.
Purkis L. 2015. Summary report of Satellite mapping of morphological and benthic habitats for the
Eastern Honduras Cays and Banks. Smithsonian Institution, Fort Pierce. 24 pp.
Rodriguez FA, AL Cupul. 2009. Evaluacion de las habitats arrecifales coralinos en el arrecife de
Media Luna, Honduras. WWF report 49 p.
Young S, A Harborne and P Raines. 2001. Summary of Coral Cay Conservation’s reef check data
from Utila, Honduras. Coral Cay Conservation Ltd. 44 p.
Zitello AG, LJ Bauer, TA Battista, PW Mueller, MS Kendall, ME Monaco. 2009. Shallow-water
benthic habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS
NCCOS 96. Silver Spring, MD. 53 p.

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