This dataset includes temperature time series data from temperature data loggers from deep shelf (20-30 m) and shallow shelf (0-10 m) depths in the lower Florida Keys, Florida, USA.

This dataset contains satellite-tracked drifting buoy data collected around the southwest Florida Shelf. CODE/DAVIS (Coastal Dynamics Experiment drifters described by Davis, 1985) and mini SVP (Surface Velocity Program drifters described by Lumpkin and Pazos, 2007) buoys were deployed around Pulley Ridge, Dry Tortugas, and southwest Florida Shelf on project cruises between 2012 and 2015. Drifting buoys are designed to float freely with ocean surface currents and report their position back to shore via satellite. Data includes drifter time and position.

This dataset provides current velocity and temperature computed by a high-resolution (1/100 degree) hydrodynamic model around the study area, extending to include the full Florida Straits and coastal areas between South Florida, northern Cuba and the eastern Bahamas. The “Florida Straits, South Florida and Florida Keys” (FKEYS) model is nested within a data-assimilative coarser (1/25 degree) model of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and receives daily updated variability of the deep ocean currents. The high-resolution FKEYS model provides details in circulation among the South Florida reef ecosystems, while enabling the study of regional connectivity due to the nesting with the GoM model.

Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) Casts were conducted during project cruises on August 20-24, 2013, and August 18-24, 2014. Casts were conducted at project mooring sites located across the southwest Florida shelf: in the Northern Dry Tortugas, Southern Dry Tortugas, and at Pulley Ridge. Each mooring had an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) that recorded hourly measurements of near-surface and near-bottom water velocity, and bottom temperature. Each cast contains water column profile data (conductivity, temperature, depth, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll a fluorescence). Raw data were processed with a standard set of routines provided by the instrument manufacturer, the details of which may be accessed in the header of each data file.

This dataset comprises still images recorded by remotely operated vehicle (ROV) surveys during four cruises from 2012 to 2015, which characterized the mesophotic coral ecosystems at Pulley Ridge and Dry Tortugas. A total of 87 ROV dives surveyed 91 random blocks in the Pulley Ridge and Dry Tortugas regions, and covered a distance of 150 kilometers at depths from 22.9 to 114.4 meters. The dataset totals 14,942 in situ digital still images, of which 11,104 were analyzed using Coral Point Count with Excel Extensions (CPCe) for benthic habitat, benthic macrobiota, and coral/sponge/algal cover.

Three-dimensional (3D) connectivity matrices between Pulley Ridge and the Florida Keys using the Connectivity Modeling System (CMS) for bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus), red lionfish (Pterois volitans), great star coral (Montastraea cavernosa), mustard hill coral (Porites astreoides), and red grouper (Epinephelus morio). For all species, the probability of connectivity between reefs from 2012-2014 is modeled; for S. partitus, daily probability of export from 2004-2008 is also provided.

This dataset includes population demographic data associated with bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus) that were collected from coral reef habitats at Pulley Ridge in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Florida Keys. The information includes individual fish data: lengths, weights, estimated fecundity, measurements of oocyte area, indices of spawning, otolith-derived ages, maturity, and fish densities derived from visual transects.

This dataset comprises invertebrate zooplankton abundance data from light traps deployed in Pulley Ridge, Dry Tortugas, and the lower Florida Keys (American Shoal and Looe Key). Replicate light traps were deployed overnight from small boats in August of 2012, 2013, and 2014. Deployments were, ~5–6 m off the seafloor at all collection sites during the third quarter to new moon lunar periods. Simultaneous sampling across all sites was not possible. Larval fishes were removed from the samples and the remaining zooplankton were split using a Folsom Plankton Splitter or a box splitter. Raw counts of zooplankton were multiplied by the split denominator to determine zooplankton/trap. A total of two replicates for 19 nights of light trap deployments were identified for 29 major taxonomic zooplankton groups.