Data for evaluating the Sr/Ca temperature proxy with in-situ temperature in the western Atlantic coral Siderastrea siderea

Massive corals are used as environmental recorders throughout the tropics and subtropics to study environmental variability during time periods preceding ocean-observing instrumentation. However, careful testing of paleoproxies is necessary to validate the environmental-proxy record throughout a range of conditions experienced by the recording organisms. As part of the USGS Coral Reef Ecosystems Studies project, we tested the hypothesis that the coral Siderastrea siderea faithfully records sea-surface temperature (SST) in the Sr/Ca record throughout the subtropical (Florida, USA) seasonal cycle along 350 km of reef tract. Coral samples were analyzed from thirty-nine corals growing in 3 to 4 m depth at Fowey Rocks (Biscayne National Park), Molasses Reef (Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, FKNMS), Sombrero Reef (FKNMS), and Pulaski Shoal (Dry Tortugas National Park). Temperatures were recorded with Onset HOBO Water Temp Pro V2 (U22-001) data loggers in duplicate at each site. Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca, calcification rate, and select underwater temperature data are provided here. The results of this experiment are interpreted in Kuffner and others (2017). A larger temperature dataset, including the data provided here, is found in another data release Kuffner (2016), and a larger calcification-rate dataset is interpreted in Kuffner and others (2013).

Kuffner, I. B., Roberts, K.E., Flannery, J.A., Morrison, J.M., and Richey, J.N., 2017, Fidelity of the Sr/Ca proxy in recording ocean temperature in the western Atlantic coral Siderastrea siderea: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 18, no. 1, p. 178-188, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GC006640.

Kuffner, I.B., T.D. Hickey, and J.M. Morrison, 2013, Calcification rates of the massive coral Siderastrea siderea and crustose coralline algae along the Florida Keys (USA) outer-reef tract: Coral Reefs, v. 32, p. 987-997, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-013-1047-8.

Kuffner, I.B., 2016, Underwater temperature on off-shore coral reefs of the Florida Keys, U.S.A. (ver. 6.0, February 2021): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F71C1TZK.