Dataset: Density of coral recruits on settlement tiles in St. John, US Virigin Islands between 2007 and 2020

Location: St. John, US Virgin Islands. 18.315°N, 64.716°W

Excerpt from publication Biology Letters

Recruitment

Coral settlement was measured using terracotta tiles (15 × 15 × 1 cm) that were individually attached to the reef at ~ 5-m depth at five sites, where the tiles were ~ 2–100 cm apart. The first tiles were deployed in August 2006, immersed for ~ 6 months, and then replaced in 1/2007, 8/2007, 1/2008, and 8/2008. Thereafter, tiles were immersed for ~12 months and replaced in July/August. Ten tiles site-1 were deployed in the first year, with 15 tiles site-1 thereafter. Tiles were seasoned in seawater for 6–12 months before installation, and were attached horizontally with a ~1 cm gap beneath.

Freshly collected tiles were bleached, dried, and inspected for coral recruits at 40 x magnification. Corals were identified to family, and expressed as corals tile-1 (combined surfaces) for all corals (i.e., pooled taxa), Poritidae, Faviidae, Agaricidae, Siderastreidae, Acroporidae, and unidentified. Since tiles were immersed for ~ 6 months over the first 2 y, mean settlement by deployments was summed within year by site, which precluded calculating within-site variability. Tiles were independent in the 12 months deployments, and means (± s.e.) were calculated by year with sites as replicates (n = 5). 

​Site List:

Cabritte Horn,18.308,-64.722
West Tektite,18.312,-64.623
Yawzi Point,18.315,-64.726
West Little Lameshur,18.317,-64.728
White Point,18.314,-64.731