Heron Island coral fragment disturbance study

Brief description

The dataset contains information of experimental data collected from multiple sites (n = 4) situated on the Heron Reef (Southern Great Barrier) slope and flat. \nSmall coral colonies (<10 cm) were collected from the slope, fragmented into 3-5 cm pieces, attached to aragonite plugs, and acclimated in saltwater tanks on land. The Initial buoyant weight (g) and the total linear extension/maximum diameter (cm) were measured for each coral fragment. Eight coral fragments were attached to each rack in different coral species treatments and redeployed on the reef slope and flat.\nEvery three months, the racks are revisted and measurements are collected in-situ on each fragment’s growth and survival. Photographs of each rack are taken at each time point to quantify any disturbances the rack and fragments have endured since the last time point. This datasets allows for the quantification of coral growth and survival rates as a function of their environment and any disturbance events encountered.\n\nAccess:\nMetadata is fully public. Data files will be made fully public once the research has been published.\nFor special requests, please directly contact the Data Custodian and CC the Project Leader.\n\nLineage: NA – the dataset is the raw dataset prior to cleaning. It contains all necessary information to conduct cleaning by the user.