Science & Technology
Coral Sample Registry: LINKING DATA SETS, FOSTERING COLLABORATION
The CRF Coral Sample Registry (CSR) enables the integration of coral restoration and research data sets, solving several critical issues for restoration managers, practitioners, and researchers.
The CSR offers a way for agencies to contribute to and access the full picture of corals being used in reef restoration and research. It is designed to be suitable for all coral species in all geographic regions, can be used for tracking both sexual and asexual harvests, and establishes a link between collection information for any subsequent sample and all phenotypic data collected.
The Coral Sample Registry assigns a unique “accession number” to each sample, corresponding to a specific collection event of coral tissue, whether for research, archiving, or restoration purposes. It unlocks information related to that sample across any and all data structures that include the accession number field.
Since its publication in 2022, the CSR has helped establish industry standards for coral collection metadata. It now houses data on 5,011 unique coral samples from 71 coral species, submitted by 15 organizations across five countries.
The CSR was developed in collaboration with leading agencies and organizations, including the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, SECORE International, and the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. Currently, our partners include NOAA, FWC, AGRRA, and restoration practitioners throughout the world.