Approximately 42,000 coral colony health surveys quantify bleaching impacts and community shifts around Lord Howe Island. Data was collected between March 2010 and September 2012, capturing responses to successive marine heatwaves during a fast El Niño to La Niña transition. The dataset was published by researchers in a 2020 study and is hosted by Geoscience Australia.
Use Cases
- Modeling coral bleaching severity based on taxa and depth mentioned in the description
- Analyzing benthic community composition shifts before, during, and after thermal stress events
- Assessing recovery rates and resilience of specific coral taxa like Pocillopora and Acropora
- Studying the impact of successive annual heatwaves on high-latitude reef ecosystems
Strengths
- Approximately 42,000 coral colonies surveyed, providing a substantial sample size.
- Surveys span from March 2010 to September 2012, capturing pre-event, event, and recovery phases.
- Quantifies bleaching severity ranging from 17% to 99% across different sites and depths.
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 data_gov_au, focusing solely on Lord Howe Island.
Provenance
- Source
- Geoscience Australia Data
- Collection Method
- Coral health surveys conducted in the field.
- Time Range
- March 2010 to September 2012
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-05-14 03:06:22.645631; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Coral reef assemblages around Lord Howe Island