Dataset: Depth-dependent irradiance from sunrise to sunset across the shallow to mesophotic depth gradient for three coral morphologies from a backward Monte Carlo ray-tracing model

The results publication for these data has been submitted (Lesser et al., submitted).  See further methodology details there once published.  Data were analyzed using published inherent optical properties (IOP)s and irradiances for coral reefs.

Inherent optical properties (IOPs)

PARcos, PARhs, and PARbr simulate the plating, mounding and branching morphologies of scleractinian corals, respectively, at specific depths.  Specifically, planar irradiance, PARcos is the light intercepted per unit area for a plating coral where the plates are orientated parallel with the reef surface. Hemispherical scalar irradiance, PARhs, is the light incident on an isolated mounding coral, per unit area of the reef surface it occupies. PARbr is the average light incident per unit area of the coral surface for branching corals, this can be understood as the average light incident on a polyp in a branching coral. Finally, PARo is the spherical quantum scalar irradiance, equivalent to a ‘4p’ sensor just in front of the reef substrate.

There is no specific location associated with these data.  The focus of the project was the Caribbean Basin and the attenuation of light with depth and the role of light in structuring shallow and mesophotic coral reef communities.