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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>Lauren T. Toth</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Nancy G. Prouty</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Brooke Santos</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Jessica A. Jacobs</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Sierra Kathleen Bloomer</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Kian Bagheri</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Breanna N Williams</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Jason Scott Padgett</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Anastasios Stathakopoulos</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>SeanPaul La Selle</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Ferdinand K.J. Oberle</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2026</dc:date>
  <dc:description>We announce the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Rotating X-ray Computed Tomography (RXCT) Coral-Core Archive, a digital resource derived from ~400 coral reef cores curated at the USGS Pacific and St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Centers. The archive de-livers calibrated 3-D image volumes that enable reproducible values of skeletal density, linear extension, and calcification from decadal-to-centennials scale records of coral growth and bioerosion. Cross-study comparability within the archive is supported by a unified RXCT workflow that minimizes imaging artifacts. This includes rejecting im-age-intensity–density regressions with r² &lt; 0.95, back-calculating standard densities to verify a ±10% target precision, and confirming that band-averaged density values fall within published species- and site-specific ranges. Given global coral-reef decline and the rarity of physical archives, we release data under FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interopera-ble, Reusable) principles. Calibrated imagery and scan metadata are distributed through CoralCache/CoralCT for analysis (DeCarlo et al., 2025), while core locations and collection metadata are published through the USGS Geologic Core and Sample Database (DOI: 10.5066/F7319TR3) with links to CT slice imagery in a USGS ScienceBase repository (DOI: 10.5066/P139Y9H4). This archive provides a powerful dataset for evaluating environ-mental controls on coral growth, establishing restoration baselines, and improving coastal-hazard assessments in the face of global coral-reef declines.</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.3390/jmse14050490</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>The USGS Rotating X-ray Computed Tomography (RXCT) Coral-Core Archive: Scope, access, and standardization</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>