Lab-based evaluation of coral response to thermal stress after ex situ stress hardening assay from 2019-02-06 to 2019-07-15 (NCEI Accession 0245924)

Coral fragments from six presumed genotypes of Acropora cervicornis, originally from three ecoregions on Southeast Florida coral reefs, were collected from a University of Miami field nursery, and exposed to either field control, control, or variable thermal treatment, followed by a heat stress scenario in the University of Miami’s and NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab’s (AOML) Experimental Reef Lab (ERL) to test the capacity for short-term thermal stress hardening to enhance survivorship of coral. All treatment coral were collected from the field, relocated to experimental tanks at ERL, fragmented, mounted on experimental pedestals, and allowed to heal. After healing, field controls were immediately exposed to the heat stress scenario. Control corals were held in experimental tanks at static temperature conditions of 28 degrees Celsius for three months before being exposed to the heat stress scenario. Variable thermal treatment coral were held in experimental tanks with temperatures oscillating between 28 and 31 degrees Celsius, exposing the coral to 31 degree Celsius temperatures for three hours twice per day, for three months before being exposed to the heat stress scenario. The heat stress scenario ramped coral holding tank temperatures from 28 degrees Celsius to 32 degrees Celsius and held that "stress" temperature, during which time the coral were monitored and evaluated for Coral Watch color codes (visual), presence of rapid tissue loss (visual), average R-intensity (photometric), and photosynthetic efficiency (PAM fluorometry) to quantify coral bleaching and mortality. Coral fragments were removed from the stress scenario when bleaching or tissue loss became obvious, and the scenario continued until all coral had been removed. The data from the described metrics, along with associated metadata for the genotypes, are included in this dataset.