Heron Island coral fragment size and orientation study

The dataset contains information of experimental data collected from two sites situated on Heron Reef (Southern Great Barrier).
Small coral colonies (<10 cm) were collected from the slope, fragmented into 0.5-10 cm pieces, attached to aragonite plugs, and acclimated in saltwater tanks on land. The Initial buoyant weight (g) and the total linear extension/maximum diameter (cm) were measured for each coral fragment. 10 coral fragments were attached to each rack in different size and outplant orientation treatments and redeployed on the reef slope.
Juvenile coral quadrats (n=10) were also deployed at each site to track background juvenile coral growth over the 12 months of the experiment. Each quadrat was photographed (overall quadrat and each quadrant) and each juvenile coral present was photographed and measured (total linear extension/maximum diameter (cm)).
Every three months, the racks and quadrats are revisted and measurements are collected in-situ on each fragment or juvenile coral’s growth and survival. This datasets allows for the quantification of coral growth and survival rates as a function of intial size and outplant orientation.

Access:
Metadata is fully public. Data files will be made fully public once the research has been published.
For special requests, please directly contact the Data Custodian and CC the Project Leader.