Coral (Pocillopora verrucosa) growth and tissue mortality from experimental field plots in Moʻorea, French Polynesia in 2021

Hundreds of studies now document positive relationships between biodiversity and critical ecosystem processes, but as ecological communities worldwide shift towards new species configurations, less is known regarding how biodiversity of undesirable species will shape the functioning of ecosystems or foundation species. We manipulated macroalgal species richness in experimental field plots to test whether and how identity and diversity of competing macroalgae affected the growth, survival, and microbiome of a common coral in Moʻorea, French Polynesia. These data include coral (Pocillopora verrucosa) percent growth and tissue mortality among corals outplanted into 25 cm x 21 cm experimental plots in the back reef lagoon on the north coast of Moʻorea, French Polynesia (17°28′37″S 149°50′21″W). We varied the macroalgal community on the upper surface of each plot by outplanting monocultures holding similar masses of: (1) Sargassum pacificum, (2) Turbinaria ornata, or (3) Amansia rhodantha, as well as (4) polycultures containing all three species (12 plots per treatment; Figure 1 of Clements et al., 2024). There were also two additional treatments: (5) plots with plastic algal mimics to control for effects of shading or abrasion unrelated to the biotic properties of live seaweeds and 6) control plots where corals, but not living algae or physical mimics, were present (n = 12 plots/treatment).

This dataset includes coral (Pocillopora verrucosa) growth and tissue mortality at 9 weeks for plots with no algae (control), plastic algal mimics, monocultures of Amansia rhodantha, Turbinaria ornata, or Sargassum pacificum, and polycultures containing all three algal species.