Database description

The core of the database is the data collected from local populations. That is that one observation corresponds to the same local population. For the purposes of the CORMedNet database we defined a local population as a group of colonies (specimens/individuals) of the same species dwelling in a specific geographic location (coordinates) and depth range. This definition was adopted bearing in mind the population genetic structure patterns of key species.

For each local population the following data (with the main options in parenthesis) are provided:

• geographic position (latitude, longitude)
• dates of sampling
• depth range (minimum, maxium)
• protection level (protected, unprotected)
• type of study (distribution, demographic, genetic or other)
• Reference (published, unpublished)
• Data visibility (public, private)

If the study of the local population contains demographic data the following data (with the main option in parenthesis) is provided

• Sampling method (in situ measurements, video/photo surveys, photogrammetry, total scrapping, selective scrapping/collection)
• Sampling strategy (permanent transects, random surveys)
• Date
• Density
• Recruitment rate
• Colony size (Mean, Standard deviation, minimum, maximum for height and/or diameter)
• Percentage of large colonies (% colonies > 10 cm in height, % colonies > 7mm in diameter)
• Necrosis (Mean, standard deviation, % colonies affected)

The full description of the fields and units used can be found in this file

For the assignment of the protection level we integrated the may 2016 version of the mapamed georeferenced database (www.mapamed.org) to the CORMedNet database.