Benthic cover data photoquadrat images from patch reef 13 in Kāne'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i from 2015 to 2022

Abstract

Increasingly frequent marine heatwaves are devastating coral reefs. Corals that survive these extreme events must rapidly recover if they are to withstand subsequent events, and long-term survival in the face of rising ocean temperatures may hinge on recovery capacity and acclimatory gains in heat tolerance over an individual's lifespan. To better understand coral recovery trajectories in the face of successive marine heatwaves, we monitored the responses of bleaching-susceptible and bleaching-resistant individuals of two dominant coral species in Hawaiʻi, Montipora capitata and Porites compressa, over a decade that included three marine heatwaves.

This dataset contains benthic cover data and photoquadrat images including point counts and organism identifications from patch reef 13 in Kāne'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i from 2015 to 2022.

For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/897403