Light availability determines susceptibility of reef building corals to ocean acidification, supplement to: Suggett, David J; Dong, L F; Lawson, Tracy; Lawrenz, E; Torres, L; Smith, David J (2012): Light availability determines susceptibility of reef building corals to ocean acidification. Coral Reefs, 32(2), 327-337

• Main Authors: Suggett, David J, Dong, L F, Lawson, Tracy, Lawrenz, E, Torres, L, Smith, David J
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2013
• Subjects: Acropora horrida; Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Calcification/Dissolution; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Laboratory experiment; Light; Porites cylindrica; Primary production/Photosynthesis; Respiration; Single species; South Pacific; Temperate; Species; Treatment; Irradiance; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Calcification rate, standard error; Gross photosynthesis rate, oxygen; Gross photosynthesis rate, oxygen, standard error; Respiration rate, oxygen; Respiration rate, oxygen, standard error; Salinity; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard error; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air, standard error; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard error; pH; pH, standard error; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard error; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard error; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard error; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide, standard error; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard error; Carbonate system computation flag; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Aragonite saturation state; Alkalinity anomaly technique Smith and Key, 1975; Potentiometric titration; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Pacific; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.825108; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.825108

Elevated seawater pCO2, and in turn ocean acidification (OA), is now widely acknowledged to reduce calcification and growth of reef building corals. As with other environmental factors (e.g., temperature and nutrients), light availability fundamentally regulates calcification and is predicted to change for future reef environments alongside elevated pCO2 via altered physical processes (e.g., sea level rise and turbidity); however, any potential role of light in regulating the OA-induced reduction of calcification is still unknown. We employed a multifactorial growth experiment to determine how light intensity and pCO2 together modify calcification for model coral species from two key genera, Acropora horrida and Porites cylindrica, occupying similar ecological niches but with different physiologies. We show that elevated pCO2 (OA)-induced losses of calcification in the light (G L) but not darkness (G D) were greatest under low-light growth conditions, in particular for A. horrida. High-light growth conditions therefore dampened the impact of OA upon G L but not G D. Gross photosynthesis (P G) responded in a reciprocal manner to G L suggesting OA-relieved pCO2 limitation of P G under high-light growth conditions to effectively enhance G L. A multivariate analysis of past OA experiments was used to evaluate whether our test species responses were more widely applicable across their respective genera. Indeed, the light intensity for growth was identified as a significant factor influencing the OA-induced decline of calcification for species of Acropora but not Porites. Whereas low-light conditions can provide a refuge for hard corals from thermal and light stress, our study suggests that lower light availability will potentially increase the susceptibility of key coral species to OA. : 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 2013-12-31.