RRAP-ECT-1.1 Metadata, phenotypes, photos, and links to genomic data for Acropora hyacinthus, Acropora kenti, and Acropora spathulata

Updated: 2026-09-29

This data records contains the colony level metadata for three species investigated as part of RRAP ECT-01: - Acropora hyacinthus (a species complex, includes A. tersa and A. divaricata. See Rasmussen et al. 2025 for details) - Acropora kenti - Acropora spathulata Between 500 and 700 colonies for these 3 species were located via scuba, photographed in-situ, and collected for genotyping and phenotyping between 2021 and 2024. The overarching aim of this work was to phenotype coral colonies for their heat tolerance, and then assess whether a genetic basis for heat tolerance could be identified via estimation of heritability and genome-wide association studies. Phenotyping for relevant heat-tolerance metrics was conducted the same day of sampling aboard AIMS Research Vessels using the rapid phenotyping assays available with SeaSimInABox. Genetic samples were preserved in 100% ethanol, and genotyped with a whole-genome resequencing approach. Details of the sampling methodology, phenotyping assays, and DNA extraction and sequencing are provided in these RRAP publications: - Naugle et al. 2024 Commun Earth Environ https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01649-4 - Denis et al. 2024 Proc Biol Sci https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.0587 - Denis et al. 2026 Curr Biol https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.04.057 This data records contains: - Metadata for each sampled colony (including the species, sampled ID, depth, reef ID, sampling date, GPS coordinates, collectors, etc) - Phenotype data (NDVI and Fv/Fm for each fragment that was sampled and genotyped for each colony. - Instructions on how to access the raw genomic data (this is gradually being submitted to NCBI Short Read Archive) - Instructions on how to access photos for each sampled colony