Canopy closure values from photographs taken within octocoral forestsalong the south shore of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands in March of 2019

Abstract

These data represent the determination of canopy closure values from photographs taken within octocoral forests along the south shore of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Sampling was performed during March 2019 in quadrats (1m2) placed at ~8–9-m depth. These data were recorded in conjunction with light intensity measurements and used to investigate the relationship between octocoral canopy metrics and evidence of sunflecking in the understory environment.

These data were collected as part of an NSF Coral Reef Time Series, Virgin Islands: Long-term coral reef community dynamics in the Virgin Islands National Park and were published in Girard and Edmunds (2023).

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/892323