Benthic transects were repeated at 12 sites around Tutuila at various depths on the reef slopes and flats. Benthic coverage categories include coral species, invertebrates, and non-living substrate type. Annual surveys took place during 2005-2009. The most detailed data are from 2008. The data were provided as spreadsheets and metadata within a PDF document, focusing on the 2008 surveys. A related data set was can be found in NCEI Accession 0066319, which was derived from surveys in Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Pago Pago (Rainmaker and Aua), and Fagasa (Sita Bay and Cape Larsen) conducted in 2004 and 2007-2008. Parameters include coral, algal, or invertebrate species, coral colony diameter size, and non-living bottom type. Also in 0066319 are summaries of species identification from sites above and Ofu-Olosega Islands, Ta'u Island, Aunu'u, Manu'a, and Rose Atoll, based on historic surveys back to 1917 are also given in spreadsheets. This is a working list put together by Dr. Charles Birkeland.

The data described here result from benthic coral demographic surveys within belt transects of specified length and width for two life stages (juveniles and adults) in Fagaʻalu, American Samoa in 2020. The data provide information on adult coral colony counts, morphology, size, partial mortality (old and recent dead), presence and causation of disease and other compromised health conditions, including bleaching. Juvenile colony surveys include morphology and size. Taxonomic identification of adult colonies is to the species level and genus level for juveniles. In 2020, the survey implemented a one-stage stratified random sampling (StRS) design to assess the Fagaʻalu coral reef community. The survey domain encompassed the majority of the mapped area of reef and hard bottom habitats in the 0–30 m depth range. The stratification scheme included cardinal position (i.e., north and south), reef zone (i.e., backreef and forereef) and depth (i.e., shallow: >0–6 m and mid-depth: >6–18 m). Sampling effort allocation was determined based on strata area and sites randomly located within strata. The StRS design effectively reduces estimate variance through stratification using environmental covariates and by sampling more sites rather than more transects per site. Therefore, site-to-site comparisons should proceed with caution.

The Benthic Organisms of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary geodatabase is a collection of information on the distribution of benthic organisms within the sanctuary compiled from multiple sources. It contains information on the distribution of benthic habitats from the Unified Florida Reef Tract Map version 1.1, the distribution of hard and soft corals surveyed by multiple monitoring programs, the distribution of resilient reefs and distribution of seagrasses.