Seawater carbonate chemistry, biomass and calcification of Porites spp. corals during experiments, 2011, supplement to: Edmunds, Peter J (2011): Zooplanktivory ameliorates the effects of ocean acidification on the reef coral Porites spp. Limnology and Oceanography, 56(6), 2402-2410

• Main Author: Edmunds, Peter J
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2011
• Subjects: Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; Calcification/Dissolution; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Laboratory experiment; Porites sp.; Single species; South Pacific; Temperature; Tropical; Experimental treatment; Identification; Salinity; Salinity, standard error; Temperature, water; Replicates; Radiation, photosynthetically active; Radiation, photosynthetically active, standard deviation; pH; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard error; Carbon dioxide, partial pressure; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air, standard error; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; 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; Calcite saturation state; Porites spp. biomass; Sample ID; Porites spp. heterotrophy; Calcification rate; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Porites spp., surface area; YSI 3100 Conductivity Meter; Digital thermometer Fisher Scientific; PAR sensor LI-1400, LI-COR Inc.; pH meter Mettler Toledo, USA; T50 Titrator Mettler Toledo, Port Melbourne, Australia; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Buoyant weighing technique Davies, 1989; Aluminium foil method Marsh, 1970; European network of excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis EUR-OCEANS; European Project on Ocean Acidification EPOCA; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Pacific; Toledo; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.772703; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.772703

I tested the hypothesis that the effects of high pCO2 and temperature on massive Porites spp. (Scleractinia) are modified by heterotrophic feeding (zooplanktivory). Small colonies of massive Porites spp. from the back reef of Moorea, French Polynesia, were incubated for 1 month under combinations of temperature (29.3°C vs. 25.6°C), pCO2 (41.6 vs. 81.5 Pa), and feeding regimes (none vs. ad libitum access to live Artemia spp.), with the response assessed using calcification and biomass. Area-normalized calcification was unaffected by pCO2, temperature, and the interaction between the two, although it increased 40% with feeding. Biomass increased 35% with feeding and tended to be higher at 25.6°C compared to 29.3°C, and as a result, biomass-normalized calcification statistically was unaffected by feeding, but was depressed 12-17% by high pCO2, with the effect accentuated at 25.6°C. These results show that massive Porites spp. has the capacity to resist the effects on calcification of 1 month exposure to 81.5 Pa pCO2 through heterotrophy and changes in biomass. Area-normalized calcification is sustained at high pCO2 by a greater biomass with a reduced biomass-normalized rate of calcification. This mechanism may play a role in determining the extent to which corals can resist the long-term effects of ocean acidification. : 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).