Seawater carbonate chemistry and encrusting algal communities duirng a mesocosm experiment, 2007

• Main Authors: Kuffner, Ilsa B, Andersson, Andreas J, Jokiel, Paul L, Rodgers, Ku'ulei, Mackenzie, Fred T
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2007
• Subjects: Benthos; Coast and continental shelf; Community composition and diversity; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Entire community; Field experiment; Reproduction; FOS Medical biotechnology; Rocky-shore community; Tropical; Experimental treatment; Carbonate system computation flag; Salinity; Temperature, water; pH; Carbon dioxide; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Bicarbonate ion; Carbonate ion; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Alkalinity, total; Aragonite saturation state; Calcite saturation state; Crustose coralline algae recruitment; Crustose coralline algae; Non-calcifying algae; Experiment; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; YSI 30 salinty/conductivity/temperature meter; Measured; Titration potentiometric; Image analysis; European network of excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis EUR-OCEANS; European Project on Ocean Acidification EPOCA; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.718862; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.718862

Owing to anthropogenic emissions, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide could almost double between 2006 and 2100 according to business-as-usual carbon dioxide emission scenarios. Because the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will lead to increasing dissolved inorganic carbon and carbon dioxide in surface ocean waters, and hence acidification and lower carbonate saturation states. As a consequence, it has been suggested that marine calcifying organisms, for example corals, coralline algae, molluscs and foraminifera, will have difficulties producing their skeletons and shells at current rates, with potentially severe implications for marine ecosystems, including coral reefs. Here we report a seven-week experiment exploring the effects of ocean acidification on crustose coralline algae, a cosmopolitan group of calcifying algae that is ecologically important in most shallowwater habitats. Six outdoor mesocosms were continuously supplied with sea water from the adjacent reef and manipulated to simulate conditions of either ambient or elevated seawater carbon dioxide concentrations. The recruitment rate and growth of crustose coralline algae were severely inhibited in the elevated carbon dioxide mesocosms. Our findings suggest that ocean acidification due to human activities could cause significant change to benthic community structure in shallow-warm-water carbonate ecosystems. : In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Lavigne and Gattuso, 2011) was used to compute a complete and consistent set of carbonate system variables, as described by Nisumaa et al. (2010). In this dataset the original values were archived in addition with the recalculated parameters (see related PI).