Physiology of Montipora capitata and Porites compressa from October 2019 to September 2022 in response to marine heatwaves (2015 and 2019) in Hawaiʻi

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 includes all of the physiological data for both species from October 2019 to September 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/904962