Seawater carbonate chemistry and skeletal development, size, weight, total lipid and symbiont density of coral Favia fragum in a laboratory experiment, supplement to: Drenkard, E J; Cohen, Anne L; McCorkle, Daniel C; de Putron, Samantha J; Starczak, V R; Zicht, A E (2013): Calcification by juvenile corals under heterotrophy and elevated CO2. Coral Reefs, 32(3), 727-735

• Main Authors: Drenkard, E J, Cohen, Anne L, McCorkle, Daniel C, de Putron, Samantha J, Starczak, V R, Zicht, A E
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2013
• Subjects: Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Favia fragum; Growth/Morphology; Laboratory experiment; North Atlantic; Other; Single species; Temperate; Identification; Species; Treatment; Sample code/label; Spat with tertiary septa; Spat with tertiary septa, standard error; Diameter; Diameter, standard error; Mass; Mass, standard error; Total tissue lipid per spat; Total tissue lipid per spat, standard error; Symbiont cell density; Symbiont cell density, standard error; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Temperature, water; Temperature, standard deviation; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at equilibrator temperature wet air; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; pH; pH, standard deviation; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; 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; Calcite saturation state; Potentiometric titration; Coulometric titration; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.823545; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.823545

Ocean acidification (OA) threatens the existence of coral reefs by slowing the rate of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) production of framework-building corals thus reducing the amount of CaCO3 the reef can produce to counteract natural dissolution. Some evidence exists to suggest that elevated levels of dissolved inorganic nutrients can reduce the impact of OA on coral calcification. Here, we investigated the potential for enhanced energetic status of juvenile corals, achieved via heterotrophic feeding, to modulate the negative impact of OA on calcification. Larvae of the common Atlantic golf ball coral, Favia fragum, were collected and reared for 3 weeks under ambient (421 µatm) or significantly elevated (1,311 µatm) CO2 conditions. The metamorphosed, zooxanthellate spat were either fed brine shrimp (i.e., received nutrition from photosynthesis plus heterotrophy) or not fed (i.e., primarily autotrophic). Regardless of CO2 condition, the skeletons of fed corals exhibited accelerated development of septal cycles and were larger than those of unfed corals. At each CO2 level, fed corals accreted more CaCO3 than unfed corals, and fed corals reared under 1,311 µatm CO2 accreted as much CaCO3 as unfed corals reared under ambient CO2. However, feeding did not alter the sensitivity of calcification to increased CO2; Delta calcification/Delta Omega was comparable for fed and unfed corals. Our results suggest that calcification rates of nutritionally replete juvenile corals will decline as OA intensifies over the course of this century. Critically, however, such corals could maintain higher rates of skeletal growth and CaCO3 production under OA than those in nutritionally limited environments. : 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). The date of carbonate chemistry calculation by seacarb is 2013-12-02.