National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Assessment of coral reef benthic communities in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Data provided in this data set were collected around the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) as part of NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)-led benthic data collection missions for the ongoing National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP), consisting of two survey types: the Line Point-Intercept (LPI) method and the Coral Demographic method. The LPI method provides a measure of percent cover of biotic and abiotic components of the benthos in a stratified random sampling design in hardbottom and coral reef habitats. The coral demographics protocol provide more detailed and species-specific insight (‘signal magnitude’) for coral populations than is provided by percent cover.