In accordance with SO #3423 - The Gulf of America and SO #3424 - Mount McKinley and Landmarks Honoring the Alaskan People, new USGS data releases specific to those named places will utilize the new name Gulf of America and the restored name Mount McKinley. Per USGS practice, historical data will retain the name of the geographic features as they were known at the time the data were originally released.
Data Release
Seafloor elevation change in Maui, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and the Florida Keys
by Kimberly K. Yates, David G. Zawada, Nathan A. Smiley, Ginger Tiling-Range, and Jessica P. Resnick
USGS, St. Petersburg, Florida
Summary
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted research to quantify the combined effect of all constructive and destructive processes on modern coral reef ecosystems by measuring regional-scale changes in seafloor elevation. USGS staff assessed five coral reef ecosystems in the Atlantic Ocean (Upper and Lower Florida Keys), Caribbean Sea (U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas and Buck Island, St. Croix), and Pacific Ocean (Maui, Hawaii), including both coral-dominated and adjacent, non-coral dominated habitats. Scientists used historical bathymetric data from the 1930s to 1980s and contemporary light detection and ranging (lidar) digital elevation models (DEMs) from the late 1990s to 2000s to calculate changes in seafloor elevation for each study site over time periods reflecting low to high anthropogenic impacts. This data release contains the location, elevation, and elevation change data used in this study. Using these changes in elevation, further analysis was done to calculate corresponding changes in seafloor volume for all study areas and habitat types within each site.
For further information regarding data analysis methods refer to:
Yates, K. K., Zawada, D. G., Smiley, N. A., and Tiling-Range, G., 2017, Divergence of seafloor elevation and sea level rise in coral reef ecosystems: Biogeosciences, v. 14, no. 6, p. 1739–1772, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-1739-2017.
Data
| File Name and Description | Metadata (XML format) | Metadata (text format) | Download |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maui_ElevationChange.zip Spreadsheet containing data used to compute reef elevation change around Maui (.csv) |
Maui_ElevationChange_metadata.xml | Maui_ElevationChange_metadata.txt | Maui_ElevationChange.zip (810 KB) |
| STC_ElevationChange.zip Spreadsheet containing data used to compute reef elevation change near St. Croix (.csv) |
STC_ElevationChange_metadata.xml |
STC_ElevationChange_metadata.txt |
STC_ElevationChange.zip (442 KB) |
| STT_ElevationChange.zip Spreadsheet containing data used to compute reef elevation change near St. Thomas (.csv) |
STT_ElevationChange_metadata.xml |
STT_ElevationChange_metadata.txt |
STT_ElevationChange.zip (1.5 MB) |
| UFK_ElevationChange.zip Spreadsheet containing data used to compute reef elevation change in the Upper Florida Keys (.csv) |
UFK_ElevationChange_metadata.xml |
UFK_ElevationChange_metadata.txt |
UFK_ElevationChange.zip (888 KB) |
| LFK_ElevationChange.zip Spreadsheet containing data used to compute reef elevation change in the Lower Florida Keys (.csv) |
LFK_ElevationChange_metadata.xml |
LFK_ElevationChange_metadata.txtt |
LFK_ElevationChange.zip (66 KB) |
Figure 1. Areas used for reef elevation change analysis in Maui, St. Croix, St. Thomas, the Upper Florida Keys, and the Lower Florida Keys.
Suggested Citation
Yates, K.K., Zawada, D.G., Smiley, N.A., Tiling-Range, G., and Resnick, J.P., 2017, Seafloor elevation change in Maui, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and the Florida Keys: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7WQ01W0.