Data file for the manuscript-Biomimetic Microhabitats for Augmented Coral Settlement and Reef Rehabilitation

Anthropogenic stressors pose substantial threats to the future existence of coral reefs. Achieving successful coral recruitment stands as a bottleneck in reef restoration and hybrid reef engineering efforts. Here, we enhance coral settlement through the development of biomimetic microhabitats that replicate the chemical landscape of healthy reefs. We engineered a soft biomaterial, SNAP-X, composed of silica nanoparticles, biopolymers and algal exometabolites, to enrich reef microhabitats with bioactive molecules from crustose coralline algae. Coral settlement was enhanced over 20-fold using SNAP-X coated substrates compared to uncoated controls. SNAP-X is designed to gradually release chemical signals slowly (> 1 month) under natural seawater conditions, and it can be rapidly applied to natural reef substrates via photopolymerization, further facilitating the light-assisted 3D printing of microengineered habitats. We anticipate that these biomimetic microhabitats will be widely used to augment coral settlement on degraded reefs and to support ecosystem processes on hybrid reefs.