Deep-sea corals are valuable as they create intricate three-dimensional habitats, harbor commercially important species, and serve to reconstruct past climate and oceanic condition. Yet deep-sea coral ecosystems are under several threats. Therefore, the goal of this project was to enrich NOAA's deep-sea coral data with coincident seafloor geomorphology, a strong influence on their distribution, to help scientists develop more effective conservation strategies. Geomorphic data came from the Global Seafloor Geomorphology feature set which is hosted by Esri's Living Atlas. Initially, each geomorphic layer was spatially joined to the deep-sea coral data manually. Then, a Python script tool was developed in the ArcGIS Pro Python toolbox environment to automate the process. This tool was developed to efficiently and accurately enrich future coral records with coincident environmental information. However, it can be used to unite any datasets. Chi-square analysis showed a significant association between coral groups and broad geomorphic zones (i.e. shelf, slope, abyssal, and hadal). Most soft, black, gorgonian coral, and sea pens were located on the slope while most lace coral was located on the shelf. Most corals were located on features categorized by high vertical relief such as seamounts, ridges, and canyons which agrees with previous research.
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