Dataset: Trace metal ratios from four coral skeletons from three coral species (Diploria labyrinthiformis, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Orbicella franksi) extracted from Hog Reef in Bermuda, collected in August of 2016.

Day-trips aboard BIOS small boat on various days between 1 August 2016 to 31 August 2016. 

Coral cores were collected in August 2016 using a 2-inch diameter wet concrete diamond drill bit powered by an underwater pneumatic drill. The colonies were sealed with a cement plug and underwater epoxy to promote recovery of the coral following core extraction. All cores were scanned via a GE Lightspeed VCT at San Diego Imagery to determine annual linear extension, density, and calcification rate. A subset of cores from Hog Reef was used for skeletal trace metal analysis. Cores were cut using a double-bladed lapidary saw to produce an 8 mm thick cross section from the center of each core. To accommodate trace metal analysis using LA-ICP-MS, this section was reduced to 1.5 mm thick slabs separated into pieces on average 20-25 mm wide and 30-40 mm long. Each piece was polished, ultrasonicated in DI water for approximately 15 minutes, and image-mapped before analysis. All trace element abundance analyses were done at the Scripps Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory (SIGL), at the University of California, San Diego. Analyses were performed with laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) using a Thermo Scientific iCAP Q ICP-MS and a New Wave Research UP213 deep UV-YAG 213 μm laser. The LA-ICP-MS sessions consisted of a combination of sample spots bookended by standard reference materials (NIST-610, NIST-612, BHVO-2G, BCR-2G, MACS-3), with additional NIST-610 reference materials run every 5 samples. The spot size was 100 μm, with a common laser fluency of 2.7-3.7 J/cm^2, ~20 seconds of background followed by ~40 seconds of sample measurement, and a 2-minute wash out after each spot flushing the ablation cell. 

All cores were collected under the Government of Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources license number 2015–05–26–46.