Coral Health Surveys at Lord Howe Island During 2010-2012 El Niño-La Niña Transition

Australian Ocean Data Network hosts survey data quantifying the response of approximately 42,000 coral colonies to successive marine heatwaves. The data, linked to a 2020 scientific publication, documents bleaching severity, mortality, and recovery across different coral taxa and reef sites around Lord Howe Island between March 2010 and September 2012. Changes in benthic community composition before, during, and after the thermal stress events were assessed.

Use Cases

• Modeling coral bleaching susceptibility and mortality rates based on taxa-specific responses mentioned in the description
• Analyzing benthic community shifts from coral to macroalgae dominance following repeated thermal stress
• Assessing coral recovery and symbiont function resilience over time based on pigmentation and color return observations
• Studying the impact of rapid El Niño to La Niña phase transitions on high-latitude reef assemblages

Strengths

• Approximately 42,000 coral colonies were surveyed, providing a substantial sample size.
• Data spans a critical period from March 2010 to September 2012, capturing before, during, and after two successive bleaching events.
• Findings are directly linked to a peer-reviewed publication in Science of The Total Environment (2020).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific analytical tasks.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Coral health surveys conducted at reef sites around Lord Howe Island.

Time Range

March 2010 to September 2012

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 18:16:09.226632; freshness should be verified.

Geography

High-latitude coral reef assemblages around Lord Howe Island.