Moorea Porites Size-frequency distributions

These data allows to determine if Porites populations are gueninely stable or are merely surviving as remnant taxon within a depauperate community
across lagoonal and bay sites around Moorea Island.

To answer this question, we have used the "Size structure" or "Size-frequency distribution" approach that gains valuable insights into demographic dynamics such as : coral post-settlement (by measuring the lowest coral size), growth and mortality patterns.

We have also used the "marine substrate" approach to assess the total living coral cover, and the Porites relative abundance (assess the coral community composition).
We have compared both approaches, they are complementary.

We also used the "marine substrate" approach to quantify some environmental conditions such as macroalgae cover and grain size (proxy of hydrodynamic conditions and sedimentation). By correlations statistics, we have quantified relations between these coral size + coral cover variables and the environmental conditions.

The R code and all csv files allow to get all the results and figures mentionned in the study.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the corresponding author.

Thank you,

Aitu Raufauore