NOAA Deep Sea Corals Research and Technology Program
Citation
Hourigan T, Benson A, Dornback M (2016). NOAA Deep Sea Corals Research and Technology Program. United States Geological Survey. Occurrence Dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/aqbftj accessed via GBIF.org on 2018-04-20.Description
NOAA’s Deep-Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSC-RTP) is compiling a national geodatabase of the known locations of deep-sea corals and sponges in U.S. territorial waters and beyond. The database will be comprehensive, standardized, quality controlled, and networked to outside resources. The database schema accommodates both linear (trawls, transects) and point (samples, observations) data. The structure of the database is tailored to occurrence records of all the azooxanthellate corals, a subset of all corals, and all sponge species. Records shallower than 50 m are generally excluded in order to focus on predominantly deep-water species – the mandate of the DSC-RTP. The intention is to limit the overlap with light-dependent (and mostly shallow-water) corals.Taxonomic Coverages
Geographic Coverages
Data were collected primarily from U.S. waters and oceanic regions–the Arctic, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Bibliographic Citations
Contacts
Tom Houriganoriginator
position: Deep-Sea Coral Chief Scientist
email: tom.hourigan@noaa.gov
Abigail Benson
metadata author
position: Biologist
U.S. Geological Survey
email: albenson@usgs.gov
Matt Dornback
metadata author
position: Researcher
NOAA
email: matt.dornback@noaa.gov
Abigail Benson
user
email: albenson@usgs.gov
Tom Hourigan
administrative point of contact
position: Deep-Sea Coral Chief Scientist
email: tom.hourigan@noaa.gov