Marine infectious diseases are a leading cause of population declines globally due, in large part, to challenges in diagnosis and limited treatment options. Mitigating disease spread is particularly important for species targeted for conservation. In some systems, the strategic arrangement of organisms in space can constrain disease outbreaks, however, this approach has not been used in marine restoration. Reef-building corals have been particularly devastated by disease and continue to experience catastrophic population declines. Here, we opportunistically tracked white band disease in Acropora cervicornis as it moved through a coral nursery in Little Cayman, CI. We show mixtures of genotypes led to less prevalence of disease in nursery-reared Acropora cervicornis compared to corals on single genotype frames.  

The data were collected by divers in the CCMI nursery visually assessing each Acropora cervicornis colony present on PVC frames. Corals were considered Healthy (H) if no signs of the disease were present, diseased (X) if any disease was present, Dead - if there was no tissue left (D). Corals are on different frames and arranged by column and row. The coral ID is the colony's unique identifier.

We describe the data using the README file.