Seawater carbonate chemistry and biological processes during experiments with temperate coral Cladocora caespitosa, 2010

• Main Authors: Rodolfo-Metalpa, Riccardo, Martin, Sophie, Ferrier-Pagès, Christine, Gattuso, Jean-Pierre
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2010
• Subjects: Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Calcification/Dissolution; Cladocora caespitosa; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Laboratory experiment; Mediterranean Sea; Other studied parameter or process; Primary production/Photosynthesis; Respiration; Single species; Temperate; Temperature; Experimental treatment; Sample ID; Identification; DATE/TIME; Salinity; Temperature, water; Carbonate system computation flag; pH; Alkalinity, total; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Bicarbonate ion; Carbonate ion; Carbon dioxide; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Aragonite saturation state; Calcite saturation state; Photosynthetic efficiencies; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Respiration rate, oxygen; Net photosynthesis rate; Gross photosynthesis rate; Zooxanthellae; Chlorophyll a+c2; Protein; pH meter Metrohm, 826 pH mobile; Metrohm 665 Dosimat titrator; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Pulse Amplitude Modulated fluorometer Diving-PAM, Walz; Alkalinity anomaly technique Smith and Key, 1975; Buoyant weighing technique Davies, 1989; Strathkelvin oxygen electrode system; Measured; Calculated; Microscopy; Calculated after Jeffrey & Humphrey 1975; BCA assay, Intact protein analyses Smith et al., 1985; European Project on Ocean Acidification EPOCA; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.754807; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.754807

Atmospheric CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) is expected to increase to 700 µatm or more by the end of the present century. Anthropogenic CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, leading to decreases in pH and the CaCO3 saturation state of the seawater. Elevated pCO2 was shown to drastically decrease calcification rates in tropical zooxanthellate corals. Here we show, using the Mediterranean zooxanthellate coral Cladocora caespitosa, that an increase in pCO2, in the range predicted for 2100, does not reduce its calcification rate. Therefore, the conventional belief that calcification rates will be affected by ocean acidification may not be widespread in temperate corals. Seasonal change in temperature is the predominant factor controlling photosynthesis, respiration, calcification and symbiont density. An increase in pCO2, alone or in combination with elevated temperature, had no significant effect on photosynthesis, photosynthetic efficiency and calcification. The lack of sensitivity C. caespitosa to elevated pCO2 might be due to its slow growth rates, which seem to be more dependent on temperature than on the saturation state of calcium carbonate in the range projected for the end of the century.