National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Water temperature data from subsurface temperature recorders (STRs) deployed at coral reef sites in Puerto Rico from 2015-01-20 to 2017-08-12 (NCEI Accession 0177771)

This archive package contains water temperature data collected using subsurface temperature recorders (STRs) that aid in the monitoring of seawater temperature variability at permanent coral reef sites in Puerto Rico as part of the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program’s (CRCP’ s) National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP). The high-accuracy temperature loggers (SBE56, SeaBird Electronics) are deployed on reefs for a period of three years. STRs are deployed along depth transects targeting 1, 5, 15, & 25 meters at ocean and climate change monitoring survey sites. Depth transects are located on the northern, southern, eastern, and western coasts of each target region. When a STR is recovered, typically another STR is deployed at the same location. Temperature data are collected in 5-minute intervals, and gaps in time-series (due to instrument failure or battery death) are manually padded with null values. STRs time-series data in this package were converted into coordinated universal time (UTC) from Eastern Standard Time (EST). For organizational purposes, temperature data files archived in this package are separated by region then by location. The temperature data provided in this dataset were collected from STRs deployed at existing long-term monitoring sites by the Acidification Climate and Coral Reef Ecosystems Team (ACCRETE), based at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML).

Due to the large size of Puerto Rico, additional depth transects were placed around the island. Along the eastern coast of the island, a total of three separate depth transects were deployed. Along the southern coast, two depth transect were deployed. Only one depth transect was deployed in each of the north and west coasts of the island. Upon retrieval, one of the three eastern transect sites (Vieques) was deemed unsafe and therefore those instruments were not recovered.