Photoquadrats (0.5 \u00d7 0.5 m) were randomly located along a single 40-m transect permanently marked at 10-m at each of LTER sites 1 and 2 along the north shore of Mo'orea, French Polynesia.\u00a0 Quadrats were photographed annually in March or April.\u00a0 Photoquadrats were recorded using SLR cameras (Nikon) in housings (Ikelite) that were mounted on a framer. Cameras were attached to strobes (Nikonos SB 105), and images included a scale.
This dataset is closely related to see related dataset:
\nThe two data sets derive from the same quadrats, and same images of those quadrats.\u00a0 The data here are not available in the related LTER data set, with the exception\u00a0of the variable labeled \"coral\".\u00a0 This variable is the total coral cover averaged over all the quadrats in the LTER data set, and thus can be derived from the\u00a0LTER data set. This \"coral\" variable is included here because it is necessary for the analysis for which these individual-colony data have been assembled.
Photo images were screened for individual Pocillopora verrucosa colonies that could be (a) unequivocally identified as the same colony in consecutive years, (b) did not exhibit full or partial mortality (to the extent that observers could tell), and (c) remained entirely within the photographed quadrat in both years. Colony diameter was calculated as the geometric mean of the major and minor axis.
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