Barcode database of scleractinian corals (Cnidaria, Scleractinia) in two tropical marine protected areas (Perhentian and Redang Islands Marine Parks, Malaysia)

Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to climate change as an elevation of sea surface temperatures would cause most coral species to bleach rapidly by expulsing their algal symbionts Symbiodiniaceae. Loss of these symbionts in coral species during stress-related “bleaching” events can lead to mass mortality of these corals and the collapse of the associated reef ecosystem. This makes the inventory of the diversity of coral species and their symbionts, in particular, genetic diversity, critical to the understanding of the assessment of coral reef resilience and ecosystem sustainability. The use of DNA barcoding has been proven useful in biodiversity assessments and monitoring schemes of marine ecosystems, particularly the highly diverse coral reef ecosystems. However, this information is lacking in Malaysia. Therefore, a comprehensive reference database of genetic sequences that represent the present coral reef biodiversity in the country would be needed. Here, we barcoded the sclerac..., Study sites
The coral specimens were collected from the Perhentian Marine Parks and Redang Marine Parks reef areas (Fig. 1) at 5–18 m depth. Sampling took place between 2017 and 2019. A list of sample details is in Table 1. The two marine parks harbored healthy diverse scleractinian corals (Fig. 2). Sample collection was conducted at a total of 23 sampling sites, the coordinates of the sites are listed in Table 2. 
Sample collection
Small coral skeletal fragments (~5 cm) were collected from the coral colony by SCUBA using a hammer and chisel and placed in a Ziplock plastic bag underwater. Coral colonies were photographed for coral morphological identification. The coral samples were transferred into cryotubes and preserved in 99% ethanol. The samples were transported back to the laboratory in a cooler box and were kept at -80°C until further DNA extraction.
DNA extraction and barcode sequencing
DNAs were extracted from the ethanol-preserved coral samples using the TOYOBO MagExtractor..., Data format: .csv