These data include the location, coordinates, species, and number of colonies for corals outplanted from coral nurseries for population enhancement in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands between 1993 and 2020. These data were compiled from permit reports for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the State of Florida Special Activity License and from coral nursery operators.

These data include the location, coordinates, species, number of colonies, and genetic identification (if available) for staghorn and elkhorn corals outplanted from coral nurseries for population enhancement in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands between 2003 and 2017. These data were compiled from permit reports for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the State of Florida Special Activity License and from coral nursery operators.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), working with scientists from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) in St. Thomas conducted a multi-year interdisciplinary research project which was a continuation of the 2007-2011 project using the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to conduct biological and physical oceanographic surveys of the Virgin Island's (VI) bank ecosystems and surrounding regional waters as well as areas around Jamaica, Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico . The long-term sustainability of fisheries in the VI and surrounding regions is dependent on a comprehensive understanding of regional spawning aggregations, larval transport, and overall larval recruitment in the study area. This survey sampled water properties, currents, and dispersal and transport of settlement-stage larvae in the VI and neighboring regions. Data in this archival package includes: processed larval fish data collected from the various net tows (BONGO, MOCNESS, etc.) , processed data from all conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) casts, processed data from all lowered acoustic Doppler profiler (LADCP) casts, processed hull-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (SADCP), processed sea surface, flow-through data collected with the ship's thermosalinograph (TSG) and fluorometer collected aboard NOAA Ship Nancy Foster during cruises NF-15-02, NF-15-03, NF-16-02, NF-16-03, NF-17-03 and NF-18-03 from 2015-04-11 to 2018-06-24.

This is the full set of Southeast Florida Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (SECREMP) raw data. This includes in situ surveys of benthic substrate coverage, stony coral abundance and condition, octocoral abundance and condition, Xestospongia muta abundance and condition, and hourly temperature records from each SECREMP site. Abstracts are provided for each dataset individually.

This dataset collection consists of yearly spreadsheets containing the corals outplanted from 2020-2023 and the survivorship over time, including but not limited to species Acropora cervicornis, Acropora palmata, Orbicella faveolata, Pseudodiploria clivosa and Montastraea cavernosa. These corals were outplanted by Mote Marine Laboratory, from 2020-01-01 to 2023-12-31 located in the Florida Keys. Mote Marine Laboratory continues to monitor each outplant one month post-outplant event, one year, three year and five years to monitor the survivorship of corals over time.

Staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, is a threatened species and the primary focus of western Atlantic reef-restoration efforts to date. As part of the USGS Coral Reef Ecosystems Studies project (http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/crest/), scientists investigated skeletal characteristics of nursery-grown staghorn coral reared using two commonly used grow-out methods at Mote Tropical Research Laboratory’s offshore nursery. USGS staff compared linear extension, calcification rate, and skeletal density of nursery-raised A. cervicornis branches reared for six months either on blocks attached to substratum or hanging from monofilament line (on PVC “trees”) in the water column. The results demonstrated that branches grown on the substratum had significantly higher skeletal density, measured using computerized tomography (CT), and lower linear extension rates compared to water-column fragments. Calcification rates determined with buoyant weighing were not statistically different between the two grow-out methods, but did vary among coral genotypes. Whereas skeletal density and extension rates were plastic traits that depended on environment, the calcification rate was conserved. Results show that the two rearing methods generate the same amount of calcium-carbonate skeleton but produce colonies with different skeletal characteristics, and suggest that genetically based variability in coral-calcification performance exists. The data resulting from this experiment are provided in this data release and are interpreted in Kuffner et al. (2017).