Water temperature data from subsurface temperature recorders (STRs) deployed at coral reef sites in Timor-Leste from 2012-10-15 to 2014-10-09 (NCEI Accession 0168931)

Water temperature data were collected by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program (CREP) using subsurface temperature recorders (STRs) deployed at fixed climate survey sites located on hard bottom shallow water (< 30 m) habitats in Timor-Leste. Climate sites were established by CREP to establish ecological baselines for climate change by measuring multiple features of the coral reef environment (in addition to the data described herein) over time. These STRs or high-accuracy temperature loggers made by SeaBird Electronics (SBE) were deployed on the reef for a period of 2 years from October 2012 to October 2014, and the sample interval was set to one hour. STRs aid in the monitoring of seawater temperature variability. These water temperature time series data for Timor-Leste, along with other data collected at the climate survey sites (water chemistry, calcification rates, invertebrate biodiversity, and benthic cover, all archived separately), can be used to help scientists assess and understand how coral reefs are responding to thermal stress that can lead to coral bleaching. The temperature data can be accessed online via the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Ocean Archive. Data are in CSV format.