Vegetation surveys at artificial reefs in Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu conducted in 2022 and 2023 as part of a reef halo dynamics study

Abstract

The goal of this dataset was to quantify substrate cover (vegetation or sand) of the benthos surrounding artificial reefs in Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi from August 2022-2023. These surveys were done monthly. We recorded three 5-meter-long video transects, spaced evenly around each artificial reef, starting from each of the three top-layer cinder blocks of the artificial reef, positioned perpendicularly to the cinder block and going outwards into the seagrass meadow. On each video transect, photos were taken continuously starting at the artificial reef. Each photo was imported into ImageJ, where the scale was set based on a 10 cm measure on the transect, and then a virtual 20x20 cm quadrat was laid directly on the right side of the transect. Virtual quadrats were laid consecutively every 20 cm (e.g., a quadrat from each of 0-20 cm, 20-40 cm, 40-60 cm, etc. Then, 20 random points were generated inside each distance bin and classified as sand or vegetation.

For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/987227