Dryad
Published June 22, 2023 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Colony-level coral demographic data from Japan & Australia (2016-2019)

Creators

  • 1. University of St Andrews
  • 2. University of the Ryukyus
  • 3. University of Technology Sydney
  • 4. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
  • 5. University of Queensland
  • 6. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
  • 7. Kuroshio Biological Research Foundation*
  • 8. University of Leeds
  • 9. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries
  • 10. University of Oxford

Description

The persistent exposure of coral communities to more variable abiotic regimes is assumed to augment their resilience to future climatic variability. Yet, while the determinants of coral population resilience across species remain unknown, we are unable to predict the winners and losers across reef ecosystems exposed to increasingly variable conditions. Using annual surveys of 3171 coral individuals across Australia and Japan (2016-2019), we explored spatial variation across the short- and long-term dynamics of competitive, stress-tolerant, and weedy assemblages to evaluate how thermal variability mediates the structural composition of coral communities. Here this dataset contains the raw colony-level data collected during these annual surveys, detailing the size, survival, and recruitment of coral colonies within a series of permenant plots arranged throughout the reef communities of Okinawa, Kochi (both Japan), the Solitary Islands Marine Park, and Heron Island (both Australia). This data set facilitates the comparison of coral population dynamics between tropical and subtropical ecoregions and between different taxonomic and morpho-functional groups.

Notes

The raw data is provided as a csv file arranged in a stacked format with each row detailing the demographic transitions recorded for an individual colony across a single annual interval (i.e., 2016 to 2017). The first 11 columns of the dataset outline each colonies associated metadata such as location (Country, ecoregion etc.), colony identity (e.g. Plot number), taxonomy (to species level where possible), and life history classification (LHS). The remaining columns then describe each colonies recorded demographic transitions as follows:

time.t = 'Starting year of corresponding annual interval'

Fragment.t = 'was the colony a product of fragmentation during the previous year' (Yes/No/NA)

Bleaching.t = 'Bleaching state at time t' (None/Slight/Moderate/Severe/NA)

Size.t = 'Colony size recorded at time t' (is NA if colony recruited between time t and t+1)

time.t1 = 'Ending year of corresponding annual interval'

No.frag.t1 = 'Number of fragments produced by colony between time t and time t+1'

Bleaching.t1 = 'Bleaching state at time t+1' (None/Slight/Moderate/Severe/NA)

Size.t1 = Colony size recorded at time t+1' (is NA if colony died between time t and t+1)

Fragment .t1 = 'was the colony a product of fragmentation between time t and time t+1'  (Yes/No/NA)

Recruit.t1 = 'was the colony a product of fragmentation between time t and time t+1' (Yes/No/NA)

Funding provided by: Natural Environment Research Council
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000270
Award Number:

Funding provided by: Royal Geographical Society
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000623
Award Number:

Funding provided by: Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Australian Research Council
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100014402
Award Number: CE140100020

Funding provided by: Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Australian Research Council
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007615
Award Number: CE110001014

Funding provided by: British Ecological Society
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000409
Award Number:

Funding provided by: Winifred Violet Scott Charitable Trust
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100020863
Award Number:

Funding provided by: HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100018694
Award Number: TRIM-DLV-747102

Funding provided by: University of Technology Sydney
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001775
Award Number:

Funding provided by: University of Sydney
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001774
Award Number:

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Raw_Coral_Demographic_data.csv

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