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 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.

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 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.

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.

Bottom-mounted, upward-facing, acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) were deployed at three locations (Northern Dry Tortugas, Southern Dry Tortugas and Pulley Ridge) across the southwest Florida shelf between 2012 and 2015. Each ADCP instrument recorded hourly measurements of near-surface and near-bottom water velocity (east/west component u, north/south component v, magnitude, and direction) and bottom temperature. A 40-hour low-pass filter (40HLP) was applied to the data, and vertically-integrated mean horizontal water velocity (VIMHWV) calculated.

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.

Pulley Ridge is a series of drowned barrier islands that extends almost 200 km in 60-100 m water depths. This drowned ridge is located on the Florida Platform in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico about 250 km west of Cape Sable, Florida. This barrier island chain formed during the initial stage of the Holocene marine transgression. These islands were then submerged and left abandoned near the outer edge of the Florida Platform. The southern portion of Pulley Ridge hosts zooxanthellate scleractinian corals, green, red and brown macro algae, and a mix of deep and typically shallow-water tropical fishes. This reef community is in unusually deep water, and its extent and the controls on its distribution were unknown. To address these questions scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program in cooperation with scientists from the University of South Florida Department of Marine Sciences have completed a detailed mapping of the southernmost 35 km of Pulley Ridge. The area was mapped using multibeam bathymetry, sidescan-sonar imagery, and high-resolution seismic-reflection profiling to define the geologic framework on which the reef is established. Submersible dives, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) transects, and transects of bottom photographs and video were collected to identify the corals and to map their distribution. This extensive suite of data has been compiled and preliminary analysis of the data suggests that the reefs are not tied to the ridge system, but instead are more broadly distributed. Whether reef distribution is controlled by oceanographic conditions or by subtle differences in the substrate that overlies the barrier island system is unclear, and are topics of continued research.

This data release contains time-series photographs taken of corals and coral habitats in the Florida Keys between 1959 and 2015 at Carysfort Reef and Grecian Rocks (a total of six sites). The original intent was to show coral reef recovery after Hurricane Donna devastated the area in 1960. Corals, especially elkhorn and staghorn coral, grew prolifically after the storm until the late 1970s, then began to decline, with the maximum period of decline centered around 1983 and 1984. These time-series photographs, showing the same individual coral colonies year after year, document the decline in coral health observed at these locations, mirroring patterns seen region-wide across the western Atlantic. A selection of the photographs was previously published (in low resolution) in Lidz and others (2006), wherein findings and conclusions related to these data were discussed. Lidz, B. H., Reich, C. D., Peterson, R. L., and Shinn, E. A. (2006). New maps, new information: Coral reefs of the Florida Keys. Journal of Coastal Research, 22(2), 260-282, https://doi.org/10.2112/05A-0023.1