This dataset contains the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program carbonate chemistry data from Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands from 2022-04-12 to 2022-08-10. The project monitors changes to coral reef carbonate chemistry over time, at U.S.-affiliated Pacific coral reef sites, through quantifying key chemical parameters that are expected to change with ocean acidification. This effort addresses multiple OAP programmatic mission areas by maintaining the coral reef portion of the OA monitoring network and developing a procedure for data synthesis, assimilation, and distribution. Incorporating an interdisciplinary approach, this project collects, processes, analyzes, and stewards dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) water sample data to document seawater carbonate chemistry at Class 0, I, II, and III climate monitoring sites in coral reef areas of the U.S. Pacific region.

This archive package contains long-term calcification data from coral cores extracted from La Parguera Reef in Puerto Rico 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).