Resistance of Two Mediterranean Cold-Water Coral Species to Low-pH Conditions

• Published in: Water
• Main Authors: Movilla, Juan Ignacio, Gori, Andrea, Calvo, Eva María, Orejas, Covadonga, López-Sanz, Àngel, Dominguez-Carrió, Carlos, Grinyó, Jordi, Pelejero, Carles
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2014
• Subjects: Microdensity; Porosity; Calcification rate; Aquaria experiments; Mediterranean Sea; Madrepora oculata; Ocean acidification; Cold-water corals; Lophelia pertusa
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/93688; https://doi.org/10.3390/w6010059

9 pages, 1 figure, 1 table Deep-water ecosystems are characterized by relatively low carbonate concentration values and, due to ocean acidification (OA), these habitats might be among the first to be exposed to undersaturated conditions in the forthcoming years. However, until now, very few studies have been conducted to test how cold-water coral (CWC) species react to such changes in the seawater chemistry. The present work aims to investigate the mid-term effect of decreased pH on calcification of the two branching CWC species most widely distributed in the Mediterranean, Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata. No significant effects were observed in the skeletal growth rate, microdensity and porosity of both species after 6 months of exposure. However, while the calcification rate of M. oculata was similar for all colony fragments, a heterogeneous skeletal growth pattern was observed in L. pertusa, the younger nubbins showing higher growth rates than the older ones. A higher energy demand is expected in these young, fast-growing fragments and, therefore, a reduction in calcification might be noticed earlier during long-term exposure to acidified conditions. © 2013 by the authors This research was supported by the European Project HERMIONE (grant agreement number 226354), the Spanish Government (MINECO) projects ACDC (CTM2009-08849/MAR) and MANIFEST (CTM2012-32017) and by the Marine Biogeochemistry and Global Change research group (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2009SGR142). JM was funded by a FPI studentship (BES-2007-16537) and AG by an I3P studentship (I3P-BPD2005) from the Spanish Government Peer Reviewed