National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Erosion data from bioerosion monitoring units (BMUs) deployed at select U.S. coral reef sites in the Atlantic Ocean

The erosion rates provided in this collection were collected from bioerosion monitoring units (BMUs) retrieved at existing long-term monitoring sites during NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Acidification, Climate, and Coral Reef Ecosystems Team (ACCRETE) led NCRMP missions around U.S. coral reefs sites in the Atlantic Ocean.

This collection of data contains BMU data from permanent long-term monitoring sites at U.S. coral reef sites in the Atlantic Ocean that were analyzed at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), as part of the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). BMUs are constructed from clean coral skeletons and left on the reef for a period of 3 years. BMUs are CT scanned for changes in density, volume and mass in which rates of bioerosion can be assessed using Amira analysis software (FEI). Annual erosion and accretion rates can be determined from these data in terms of loss of reef structure volume as well as mass in grams of calcium carbonate. Accretion rates given in this data set were determined by finding the volume of non-original carbonate material found on the external surface of the BMUs divided by the number of years the BMU was deployed on the reef. These rates can detect accretion signals when calcifying organisms, such as corals or algae, have grown on their exteriors. Rates of macroboring were determined by changes in the internal volume of the BMUs (e.g., that removed by bore holes) divided by the number of years the BMU was deployed on the reef. Macroboring can occur from eroders such as, clionaid sponges, annelids and other macroboring fauna.