RRAP ECT 2.1: Field Trial of Selectively Bred Coral Thermal Tolerance

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 coral. The dataset likely contains results from deploying offspring from heat-tolerant and control corals across nine reef sites after parent colonies underwent a rapid thermal stress test. This data is intended to evaluate selective breeding as a tool for large-scale coral restoration by assessing performance in complex natural environments.

Use Cases

• Assessing heritability of thermal tolerance based on parent colony performance under controlled stress tests.
• Comparing coral offspring survival and performance across different reef environments (lagoon, back, flank).
• Evaluating the efficacy of selective breeding interventions for large-scale restoration projects.
• Modeling coral resilience trade-offs using field data on trait and environmental interactions.

Strengths

• Field-based trial across nine distinct sites on a reef, providing ecological context beyond controlled aquariums.
• Experimental design uses a specific, documented thermal stress protocol with treatments based on local maximum monthly mean sea temperature.
• Involves a defined number of parent coral colonies (N=40) collected from a precise geographic location.

Limitations

• Critical metadata such as column names, row count, file size, and license are explicitly listed as unknown or 'None' across all sources.
• The dataset description is repeated verbatim across multiple platform entries, suggesting potential duplication without varied detail.
• The 'Last updated' dates conflict between sources (2026-06-27 and 2026-06-05), creating uncertainty about versioning.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN), likely associated with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) given the reference to 'AIMS research vessel' and 'AIMS SeaSim'.

Collection Method

Field experiment involving collection of adult corals, controlled thermal stress testing onboard a research vessel, and subsequent deployment of offspring to reef sites.

Time Range

Parent coral collection occurred in October 2023; the experiment was conducted 37 days prior to a full moon that year.

Freshness

Last updated dates range from 2026-06-05 to 2026-06-27.

Geography

Davies Reef, a central midshelf reef in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Bindal Sea Country). Specific coordinates provided: S18.81958°, E147.63129°.