The Puerto Rico Coral Reef Monitoring Program (PRCRMP) has been a joint effort between the PR Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) and NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) to gather biological data on the status of benthic and fish assemblages since 1999. Datasets available include several measurements such as coral cover percent, fish density, and fish biomass. CARICOOS has worked along with U.S. partners of the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) and the Oceanographic Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) with NOAA-IOOS support to translate the PRCRMP database following a globally standardized format known as the Darwin Core Standard. The data can now be visualized in an online mapping application that allows browsing, query, compare, and extract datasets produced by the PRCRMP from reefs in Puerto Rico. 

On Friday, November 6, 2020, a webinar was provided by CARICOOS contractor Miguel G. Figuerola to showcase the PRCRMP layer and show how to navigate the mapping tool to retrieve relevant information from coral reefs. The webinar recording can be found on the CARICOOS YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI73hAsxK38).

This product represents a big step towards improving biological data visualizations in the Caribbean region. The PRCRMP layer was chosen for this as a proof-of-concept on how granular monitoring data can be digested by a mapping application to provide easy access to biological information during research, planning, and decision-making activities. The next steps for this project include gathering user feedback, integration of the map view with the CARICOOS.org and the Caribbean Regional Partnership websites, and supporting the translation of additional biological datasets to expand layers available in the MBON data portal.

The PRCRMP data layers can be visualized in the MBON mapping application at the following link:    https://mbon.ioos.us/?ls=1b64ecc1-9cdc-b9b9-6762-193569cdc3be#map