Florida Keys BleachWatch Coral Bleaching and Condition Reports

BleachWatch data contains community-reported observations on coral condition from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Observers provide site details, environmental conditions, and specific bleaching metrics including severity, affected coral growth forms, and percent cover impacted. The dataset is curated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between water temperature and bleaching severity using reported surface and depth temperatures.
• Mapping bleaching events by coral growth form (e.g., brain, branching, mound/boulder) against reported GPS coordinates.
• Assessing the spatial distribution of bleaching severity (no bleaching, paling, completely bleached) across different reef zones (hardbottom, patch reef, bank reef).
• Correlating environmental conditions like wind speed and cloud cover with observed percent of coral cover affected.
• Monitoring for co-occurring stressors by examining notes on coral disease, mortality, and bleaching in other species like fire coral and gorgonians.

Strengths

• Data includes specific, standardized metrics for bleaching severity and affected coral growth forms, enabling consistent analysis.
• Observations cover multiple environmental factors (air/water temperature, wind, cloud cover) alongside biological conditions.
• The program emphasizes the importance of 'no bleaching' reports, which provides a more complete picture of reef health.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and exact license are not provided by any source, limiting technical assessment.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, with one listing 2026-03-06 and another 2015-11-03, creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The dataset appears to be available only in PDF format, which may hinder direct computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Community observer reports submitted via a standardized form designed to minimize effort.

Time Range

2015-05-31 to 2015-11-03

Freshness

2026-03-06 (conflict with 2015-11-03 noted in limitations)

Geography

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary