Coral Disease Distribution and Susceptibility Survey Along Oman's Northern Coast

A 2026 baseline study surveyed ten reef sites along Oman's northern coast, documenting five disease types across nine coral genera. The dataset provides the first quantitative assessment of coral diseases in Omani waters, with an overall low average disease abundance of 0.17 cases per square meter. It was authored by Thangadurai Thinesh and published under a CC-BY-4.0 license on figshare.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial patterns of coral disease prevalence based on surveyed reef sites.
• Modeling genus-specific disease susceptibility based on recorded host genera and disease types.
• Establishing a baseline for monitoring programs based on documented disease frequency and abundance.
• Comparing the relative commonness of different lesion types, such as growth anomalies and tissue loss.

Strengths

• Provides the first quantitative baseline for coral diseases in Oman, as stated in the description.
• Documents specific disease abundances, with the highest site recording 1.2 cases/m².
• Identifies five distinct disease types and their prevalence, with growth anomalies being the most common at 82%.
• Records disease susceptibility for nine coral genera, detailing which genera are affected by which diseases.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• The dataset is small (621.6 KB), indicating a limited observational scope.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Field survey of ten northeastern Omani reef sites.

Time Range

Survey date not specified; dataset published in 2026.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 09:58:39.

Geography

Ten reef sites along Oman's northern coast, including Inner Island and Fahal Island East.