RRAP ECT 2.1: Thermal Tolerance of Selectively Bred Corals at Davies Reef

Davies Reef on the Great Barrier Reef is the location for a field trial testing the heritability of heat tolerance in selectively bred Acropora spathulata corals. The dataset likely contains results from a rapid heat stress test conducted on 40 adult colonies and subsequent field deployment of offspring to nine reef sites in October 2023. It was published via the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in June 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the heritability of thermal tolerance based on selective breeding crosses.
• Analyzing coral performance trade-offs based on deployment environment across nine reef sites.
• Correlating photosynthetic efficiency (Fv/Fm) measurements with temperature stress treatments.
• Evaluating the efficacy of selective breeding as a large-scale coral restoration tool.

Strengths

• Field trial data from nine distinct sites on a midshelf Great Barrier Reef reef.
• Experimental design includes controlled temperature treatments (+4°C, +7°C, +10°C) based on local maximum monthly mean.
• Uses a defined biological metric (Fv/Fm ED50) to phenotype heat tolerance in 40 coral colonies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to a single reef study.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Field experiment involving collection, controlled heat stress testing, selective breeding, and reef deployment of coral offspring.

Time Range

Primary data collection in October 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 07:50:18.274598; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Davies Reef, central midshelf Great Barrier Reef (S18.81958°, E147.63129°).