Insidious shifts in a putative climate change coral refugium [dataset]

This dataset comprises the benthic cover data used in the research article "Carlos-Júnior et al. Insidious shifts in a putative climate change coral refugium", in Proceedings B. Benthic cover assessments were conducted yearly during the summer months, from 2006 to 2023, across five reef sites in the Abrolhos region, the largest and most biodiverse reef complex in the Southwestern Atlantic. At each site, within both reef top and wall habitats, we photographed 10 fixed photo-quadrats (0.7 m² each), totaling 20 images per site per year. Images were manually annotated using the CoralNet platform (https://coralnet.ucsd.edu/), with benthic cover estimated by identifying organisms located beneath 450 randomly distributed points per quadrat. Sampling was not conducted in 2011 due to logistical constraints and in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Identified taxa were grouped into ecologically meaningful functional groups using a trait-based, data-driven classification. Key life-history traits considered in the grouping include growth form, growth rate, reproductive strategy, morphology, symbiont diversity, and depth range. Files and variablesFile: data_SWAreefs.xlsx Description: Excel fileVariables: Each row represents a sample (photo-quadrat) and columns detail site, habitat, year, functional group, and mean percent cover. Data was derived from the following sources: field surveys carried out by the authors. The R code used in Carlos-Junior et al is available at: https://github.com/gabriellgoc/SWA-reefs-GAMs