Data are from experiments performed across multiple sites in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Djibouti. Multiple ramets from seven genets of Acropora hemprichii, Pocillopora verrucosa, Porites lobata, and Stylophora pistillata were collected from six sites along the Red Sea and used in an 18-hour acute thermal stress assay using the Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS).
Corals were subjected to 18-hour acute thermal profiles with four peak target temperatures (30°C, 33°C, 36°C, and 39°C). Experimental tanks were ramped up from the 30 degrees Celsius control treatment to temperature treatments reaching 33°C, 36°C, and 36.°C in the prolonged experiment at rates of 0.5°C and 1.5°C per day. Each temperature treatment contained two replicate tanks (A and B).
Physiological responses (Fv/Fm) of the coral host and associated endosymbionts were measured during the experiments. "Fv/Fm" refers to measurements of dark-adapted maximum quantum yield of photosystem II of the algal symbionts (Fv/Fm) for each ramet. Fv/Fm was measured using a Pulse amplitude-modulated (PAM) fluorometer (Diving PAM or Imaging PAM, WALZ).
Problems/Issues:
There are some missing data due to sample loss or mortality.