| Summary: | Third International Symposium on the Ocean In A High CO2 World, 24-27 September 2012, Monterey, California Climate change may affect dynamics of marine populations. Mortality events, associated with temperature increase, recently affected several benthic suspension feeders in the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover predictions based on different scenarios indicate that ocean pH will decrease by 0.3 to 0.4 units by the end of the century. Red coral (Corallium rubrum) is a modular anthozoan endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. This slow growing, long living species has been harvested since ancient times due to its high economic value linked to the use of the axial skeleton as raw material for jewellery leading to overexploitation. Moreover the Mg rich calcite skeleton make red coral more vulnerable to ocean acidification. In order to understand the effects of elevated pCO2 on this species, colonies of Corallium rubrum were maintained for one year in aquarium tanks at 2 pH levels (8,16 and 7,84) by bubbling seawater with pure CO2 to decrease pH. Data on buoyant weight of the colonies, biochemical balance (protein, carbohydrates and lipids) and spicules geometry were taken periodically. Buoyant weight increment resulted significantly different between control and acidified treatment. Presence of aberrant spicule shapes was observed only in the acidified treatment. Total organic matter resulted significantly higher in acidified treatments while carbohydrates, lipids proteins and fatty acid composition did not resulted significantly different between the two treatments. The higher variability in non-acidified controls suggests an effect of elevated pH on the metabolism of colonies Peer Reviewed
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