Dataset: Water temperature measured at six coral reefs sites in Palau from 2021 to 2023

Data were collected from 6 sites located in the Republic of Palau from November 2021 to May 2023. Stainless steel (316, 1/4-20 size) threaded rods were driven into dead coral or sand using a hammer or by hand. Duplicate loggers (Hobo Tidbit) were attached to threaded rods at each site and left in place between field seasons in 2021 to 2023. Loggers were changed in November 2022.

At each reef site, because the loggers were attached to steel all-thread rods hammered into the reef, the depth of the logger deployment was the same as the depth of the reef. These are maximum depths at high tide for each site:

Risong – 2 meters (m)
Ngerur – 6 m
Taoch – 5 m
Outer Taoch – 5 m
Mecherchar – 6 m
Ngelsibel – 3 m

See Meyer-Kaiser, et al. (2026) and Grupstra, et el. (2024) for further information on typical temperatures at each site, using these data.