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about 2.1 Reformat raw benthic cover data 2.2 Cross-reference benthic codes 2.3 percentage cover of main benthic categories 2.4 percentage cover of coral genera 2.5 percentage cover of coral species 2.6 percentage cover of coral trait groups 2.7 percentage cover of algae taxa 2.8 percentage cover of sponge morphs 2.9 percentage cover of zoanthids and gorgonians 2.10 percentage cover of other benthic categories
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3.1 coral health 3.2 coral interactions 3.3 fish biodiversity 3.3b fish biodiversity using NOAA data 3.4 herbivory 3.5 coral biodiversity 3.6 diadema 3.7 nuisance species
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4.1 site rugosity 4.2 site depth 4.3 site distances from shore 4.4 daily temperatures 4.5 monthly and annual DHW and temperature 4.6 currents 4.7 management 4.8 wave benthic orbital velocities pt 1 4.9 wave benthic orbital velocities pt 2 4.10 water quality 4.11 sedimentation 4.12 connectivity
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4.1 Site rugosity

Last updated

July 6, 2026

4.1 Site rugosity

On this page

This page summarizes structural rugosity across the RRS study sites. Rugosity is a per-site static driver measured once (not a time series), so the page reports its distribution across sites and the year each measurement was taken. The page computes summary statistics, shows the rugosity distribution (Figure 1) and the measurement year per site (Figure 2), and produces a tidy per-site rugosity product with metadata. It is a reference layer for the external-driver section and does not feed a downstream model.

Data sources

This page uses the master catalog of USVI RRS sites, one row per site, carrying program, site, depth, and the rugosity index with its measurement year and source. Rugosity is present for the subset of sites where it was measured across the TCRMP, VINPS, and CSUN programs. The derived per-site rugosity product produced here is available in the Downloads section below.

WarningMethods notes to resolve

Rugosity values combine measurements made in different years and, for TCRMP sites, averaged over three observations per site. The measurement method and averaging convention are not yet documented uniformly across programs, and unit consistency across programs still needs confirmation. CSUN rugosity measurements are not yet incorporated.

Import data

The page loads the master catalog of USVI RRS sites into sitedat.

Show code
sitedat <-
  read.csv(
    "../../../RRSdata/00_RRS_dataCatalogStatus/00_RRS_siteMaster_allSites_data.csv"
  )

Study site catalog

The full site catalog appears in Table 1. Rugosity and its measurement year sit in the right-hand columns.

Show code
kbl(sitedat[, 1:11]) |>
  kable_paper(full_width = F) |>
  kable_styling(
    fixed_thead = T,
    bootstrap_options = c("hover", "condensed"),
    font_size = 8
  ) |>
  scroll_box(width = "200%", height = "250px")
Sec 4.1 Table 1: Master catalog of RRS study sites (program, location, depth, and rugosity fields).
program site site_code island yearadded lat lon depth dist_from_shore rugosity rugosity_year
TCRMP Great Pond GRP STX 2003 17.71097 -64.65221 4.0000 1267.471121 1.104118 2011
TCRMP Brewers Bay BWR STT 2002 18.34403 -64.98435 6.0000 165.606733 1.587997 2011
TCRMP Fish Bay FSB STJ 2002 18.31417 -64.76408 6.0000 122.463857 1.265016 2011
TCRMP Castle CST STX 2003 17.76278 -64.59743 7.0000 637.673130 1.403704 2011
TCRMP Coculus Rock CKR STT 2002 18.31257 -64.86058 7.0000 529.220716 1.229097 2011
TCRMP Magens Bay MGN STT 2002 18.37425 -64.93438 7.0000 157.792267 1.732995 2011
CSUN West Little Lameshur WLLB STJ 1992 18.31726 -64.72780 7.0000 21.420965 NA NA
VINPS VIIS-Newfound VIIS_NF STJ 1999 18.34866 -64.66778 7.9248 122.916575 1.521400 2016
TCRMP Botany Bay BTY STT 2002 18.35738 -65.03442 8.0000 211.805356 1.341732 2011
TCRMP Sprat Hole SPH STX 2002 17.73400 -64.89540 8.0000 584.285384 2.377433 2011
VINPS VIIS-Haulover VIIS_HA STJ 2003 18.35126 -64.67950 8.2296 87.703086 1.658000 2015
TCRMP Black Point BPT STT 2003 18.34450 -64.98595 9.0000 77.608439 1.385281 2011
TCRMP Coral Bay CRB STJ 2011 18.33797 -64.70402 9.0000 307.107221 1.426478 2011
TCRMP Savana SVN STT 2003 18.34064 -65.08205 9.0000 3645.055599 1.348563 2011
CSUN Yawzi YZ STJ 1987 18.31507 -64.72551 9.0000 50.192069 NA NA
CSUN Cabritte Horn CH STJ 1992 18.30714 -64.72164 9.0000 33.063510 1.221674 2014
CSUN East Tektite ETK STJ 1992 18.31096 -64.72182 9.0000 8.835786 NA NA
CSUN Europa Bay EUR STJ 1992 18.31674 -64.72999 9.0000 90.254080 1.158487 2014
CSUN Neptunes Table NPT STJ 1992 18.31255 -64.72301 9.0000 40.655130 NA NA
CSUN White Point WP STJ 1992 18.31445 -64.73131 9.0000 47.697333 NA NA
VINPS BUIS-Western Spur and Groove BUIS_WSG STX 2000 17.79941 -64.63618 9.4488 4234.306588 1.199000 2007
TCRMP Cane Bay CBS STX 2002 17.77388 -64.81350 10.0000 254.920163 1.865841 2011
TCRMP Eagle Ray EGR STX 2002 17.76150 -64.69880 10.0000 817.330706 1.230098 2011
TCRMP Salt River West SRW STX 2002 17.78530 -64.75940 11.0000 501.441926 1.286167 2011
VINPS VIIS-Yawzi VIIS_YZ STJ 1999 18.31387 -64.72586 11.2776 174.884932 1.587100 2015
TCRMP Flat Cay FLC STT 2003 18.31822 -64.99104 12.0000 2058.986891 1.445378 2011
VINPS SARI-Salt River SARI STX 2012 17.78522 -64.75943 12.0000 491.611818 1.720700 2012
VINPS BUIS-South Fore Reef BUIS_SFR STX 2002 17.78455 -64.60935 12.4968 2616.878649 1.560300 2015
VINPS VIIS-Mennebeck VIIS_MB STJ 2000 18.35354 -64.68437 13.7160 65.925772 1.752000 2015
TCRMP Buck Island STT BIT STT 2005 18.27883 -64.89833 14.0000 3347.115675 1.347403 2011
TCRMP Jacks Bay JKB STX 2002 17.74337 -64.57160 14.0000 547.045582 1.251076 2011
CSUN Tektite TK STJ 1987 18.30997 -64.72322 14.0000 182.763230 NA NA
TCRMP Buck Island STX BIX STX 2002 17.78500 -64.60917 15.0000 2668.461177 1.423978 2011
TCRMP St James SSJ STT 2005 18.29459 -64.83238 15.0000 509.192822 1.368424 2011
TCRMP Kings Corner KGC STX 2007 17.69116 -64.90008 17.0000 521.236721 1.730322 2011
VINPS VIIS-Tektite VIIS_TK STJ 2005 18.30934 -64.72266 17.6784 103.148213 1.833700 2015
TCRMP Seahorse Cottage Shoal SHR STT 2003 18.29467 -64.86750 20.0000 1227.479938 1.179963 2011
TCRMP South Water SWT STT 2005 18.28068 -64.94592 20.0000 3025.443889 1.331488 2011
TCRMP South Capella SCP STT 2003 18.26267 -64.87237 21.0000 4449.118000 1.436247 2011
TCRMP Mutton Snapper FSA MTS STX 2003 17.63660 -64.86240 24.0000 5379.593965 1.499484 2011
TCRMP Lang Bank EEMP LBP STX 2009 17.72145 -64.54706 27.0000 3983.349071 1.176658 2011
TCRMP College Shoal East CSE STT 2003 18.18568 -65.07677 30.0000 18002.500610 1.553173 2011
TCRMP Meri Shoal MSR STJ 2005 18.24447 -64.75862 30.0000 7360.505507 1.270001 2011
TCRMP Salt River Deep SRD STX 2009 17.78523 -64.75917 30.0000 503.543898 1.742353 2011
TCRMP Buck Island STX Deep BID STX 2017 17.80659 -64.59935 33.0000 5216.133705 NA NA
TCRMP Lang Bank Red Hind FSA LBH STX 2002 17.82427 -64.44963 33.0000 14417.039830 1.342139 2011
TCRMP Cane Bay Deep CBD STX 2009 17.77661 -64.81522 38.0000 607.109376 1.442066 2011
TCRMP Grammanik Tiger FSA GKT STT 2003 18.18885 -64.95659 38.0000 12984.840160 2.618030 2011
TCRMP Hind Bank East FSA HBE STT 2003 18.20217 -65.00158 41.0000 12416.806120 NA NA
TCRMP Ginsburg Fringe GBF STT 2011 18.18770 -64.95998 63.0000 13114.113420 1.138706 2011

For column definitions, see the list of study sites.

Summary statistics and distribution

Rugosity was measured at 42 of 50 sites. Values ranged from 1.1 (Great Pond) to 2.62 (Grammanik Tiger FSA). Rugosity is missing at 8 site(s): West Little Lameshur, Yawzi, East Tektite, Neptunes Table, White Point, Tektite, Buck Island STX Deep, and Hind Bank East FSA, drawn from the following program(s): CSUN and TCRMP.

The summary statistics appear in Table 2.

Show code
knitr::kable(summary_table, format = "markdown")
Sec 4.1 Table 2: Summary statistics for site rugosity across all measured sites.
Statistics Value
Mean rugosity 1.48
Median rugosity 1.41
25th Percentile 1.27
75th Percentile 1.59

The distribution of rugosity across sites appears in Figure 1. Most sites cluster at lower rugosity, with a shorter tail of structurally complex reefs.

Show code
par(mar=c(5, 4, 2, 0))

hist(sitedat$rugosity,
     breaks=10,
     xlab = "rugosity",
     ylab = "number of sites",
     main = NULL)
Sec 4.1 Figure 1: Distribution of rugosity across all RRS study sites.

Rugosity is a single per-site measurement rather than a time series, so Figure 2 shows the measurement year for each site, colored by program, to make the varied measurement dates visible.

Show code
ggplot(data=sitedat, aes(x=rugosity_year, y= rugosity, color = program )) +
  geom_point(size= 5, na.rm = T) +
  theme_minimal() +
  xlab("year of rugosity measurement") +
  ylab("rugosity")
Sec 4.1 Figure 2: Rugosity by year of measurement at each site, colored by monitoring program.

Downloads

The tidy per-site rugosity product and its metadata sidecar are available below.

version 1.0.0 • in-review • data ≤ 2023-12-31