We acquired daily, globally gridded SST records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s optimum interpolated SST (OI-SST) database (version 2), which is available from 1982 to present. The OI-SST records were obtained for the interval 1982 to2008 from paired 0.25 degree latitude/longitude sized grids spanning forereef, backreef, and nearshore reef zones from where the coral cores were extracted along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System in southern Belize. Paired grids were used to provide more extensive and thus more representative coverage of SSTs within these three reef zones.
Coral cores were extracted at a water depth of 4 to 5m using a pneumatic drill outfitted with a 5-cm-diameter diamond-tipped core bit24. Six-millimetre-thick slabs were sectioned vertically from the centre of each coral core with a water-cooled trim saw. Coral slabs were then air dried and X-rayed. Skeletal extension rates were estimated from the thickness of high-density_low-density annual growth couplets using Coral XDS version 3.0. In the western Caribbean Sea, the coral S. siderea deposits lower density skeletal growth bands from December to May and higher density growth bands from June to November. Core chronologies were established by counting annual growth bands backwards from the 2008 growth band at the top of the core, which corresponds to the last complete year of coral growth before extraction of the core.
The following paper is submitted with the data:
Castillo KD, Ries JB, Weiss JM, Lima FP (2012) Decline of forereef corals in response to recent warming linked to history of thermal exposure. Nature Climate Change 2: 756-760
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