Integrating Coral Restoration Data With a Novel Coral Sample Registry

Abstract

In the past decade, the field of coral reef restoration has experienced a proliferation of data detailing the source, genetics, and performance of coral strains used in research and restoration. Resource managers track the multitude of permits, species, restoration locations, and performance across multiple stakeholders while researchers generate large data sets and data pipelines detailing the genetic, genomic, and phenotypic variants of corals. Restoration practitioners, in turn, maintain records on fragment collection, genet performance, outplanting location and survivorship. While each data set is important in its own right, collectively they can provide deeper insights into coral biology and better guide coral restoration endeavors – unfortunately, current data sets are siloed with limited ability to cross-mine information for deeper insights and hypothesis testing. Herein we present the Coral Sample Registry (CSR), an online resource that establishes the first step in integrating diverse coral restoration data sets. Developed in collaboration with academia, management agencies, and restoration practitioners in the South Florida area, the CSR centralizes information on sample collection events by issuing a unique accession number to each entry. Accession numbers can then be incorporated into existing and future data structures. Each accession number is unique and corresponds to a specific collection event of coral tissue, whether for research, archiving, or restoration purposes. As such the accession number can serve as the key to unlock the diversity of information related to that sample’s provenance and characteristics across any and all data structures that include the accession number field. The CSR is open-source and freely available to users, designed to be suitable for all coral species in all geographic regions. Our goal is that this resource will be adopted by researchers, restoration practitioners, and managers to efficiently track coral samples through all data structures and thus enable the unlocking of a broader array of insights.