Florida Reef Tract Continuous Bottom Temperature Measurements Since 1988

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary hosts a long-term ocean temperature monitoring project initiated in 1988. NOAA NCEI manages data from 38 subsurface thermographs deployed across the Florida Reef Tract, recording at two-hour intervals. This dataset provides continuous bottom temperature measurements from strategic locations to assess environmental conditions influencing coral reef ecosystems.

Use Cases

• Monitoring benthic habitat thermal stress by analyzing bottom temperature time-series.
• Assessing coastal process impacts on coral reefs using temperature data from specific reef sites like Carysfort Reef.
• Supporting biosphere and aquatic habitat research through continuous temperature measurements across the Florida Reef Tract.

Strengths

• Long-term temporal coverage spanning from June 1988 to at least August 2014.
• High-frequency data collection with recordings taken at 2-hour intervals.
• Spatially distributed network of 38 instruments across strategic reef and hydrologic ecosystem locations.

Limitations

• Specific row count and total dataset size are unknown from all sources.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between platforms (2014-08-31 and 2026-03-05), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• Column names and data structure details are not provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI

Collection Method

Data collected from 38 subsurface recording thermographs deployed in permanent housings, with annual retrieval, servicing, and reprogramming.

Time Range

1988-06-07 to 2014-08-31

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:57:14.981348

Geography

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and selected locations on the Florida Reef Tract and associated hydrologic ecosystems.