This archive package contains long-term calcification data from coral cores extracted from Cheeca Rocks and Little Conch Reef in the Florida Keys as part of the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program’s (CRCP’s) National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). Corals annually form bands within their skeletons that manifest as high-density lines perpendicular to their growth axes. By precisely measuring the spacing and density of these bands, scientists can obtain a record of linear extension and skeletal density, respectively. Linear extension and skeletal density are, in turn, used to calculate annual calcification. Cores are collected by diver, underwater, using a pneumatic drill rig. Once removed, the small (~5 cm diameter) lesions are plugged with epoxy, and the resulting cores are analyzed using computed tomography (CT). Coral core data included herein were collected at long-term monitoring sites by the Acidification Calcification and Coral Reef Ecosystems Team (ACCRETE), based at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML).

This collection contains water temperature data collected using subsurface temperature recorders (STRs) that aid in the monitoring of seawater temperature variability at permanent coral reef sites in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary as part of the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program’s (CRCP’s) National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). High-accuracy STRs are made by SeaBird Electronics (SBE) and deployed on the reef for a period of 3 years at a variety of depths from 21 to 38 meters at Ocean and Climate Change monitoring survey sites. When the STR is recovered, typically another STR is deployed in the same location. Raw data contains temperatures collected in 5-minute intervals each hour. Temperature data are archived by region, location and year recovered. For analysis purposes, temperature data is divided by region then by location. The temperature data provided in this dataset were collected from STRs deployed at existing long-term monitoring sites by the AOML Coral Program based at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory

This data set contains landscape mosaic images, created as a product for the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program’s (CRCP) National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). Orthorectified mosaic images of five reef plots were captured of a coral reef in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Due to deteriorating weather, this research cruise was cut short and transect 4 was not able to be photographed. Each reef plot is made up of a 10m x 10m transect area (100 m2). Landscape mosaics are a composite of many underwater images stitched together. These mosaics have the clarity and pixel size of the individual pictures but collectively produce a “landscape view” of the coral reef community within each transect. A scuba diver holds the mosaic rig, containing two separate cameras, above the transect while swimming in a lawnmower pattern creating a crosshatching design. The diver takes these underwater images about one to two meters above the seabed at a rate of one image per second per camera. This swimming technique allows the mosaic rig to gather 1500-3000 images which are then merged into a single “landscape mosaic image” file via Agisoft Photoscan® software. A total of five TIFF (.tif) files are included in this dataset, one TIFF file corresponds to one reef transect plot area.