Impact of elevated levels of CO2 on animal mediated ecosystem function: The modification of sediment nutrient fluxes by burrowing urchins ...

• Main Authors: Widdicombe, Stephen, Beesley, A, Berge, J A, Dashfield, S L, McNeill, C L, Needham, H R, Øxnevad, S
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2013
• Subjects: Animalia; Behaviour; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Brissopsis lyrifera; Coast and continental shelf; Echinocardium cordatum; Echinodermata; Laboratory experiment; Mortality/Survival; North Atlantic; Single species; Temperate; Species; Treatment; Mass; Size; Nitrite, flux; Nitrate, flux; Ammonium, flux; Silicate, flux; Phosphate, flux; Status; Comment; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; pH; pH, standard deviation; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, 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; Aragonite saturation state; Calcite saturation state; Potentiometric; Potentiometric titration; 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.833188; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.833188

A mesocosm experiment was conducted to quantify the relationships between the presence and body size of two burrowing heart urchins (Brissopsis lyrifera and Echinocardium cordatum) and rates of sediment nutrient flux. Furthermore, the impact of seawater acidification on these relationships was determined during this 40-day exposure experiment. Using carbon dioxide (CO2) gas, seawater was acidified to pHNBS 7.6, 7.2 or 6.8. Control treatments were maintained in natural seawater (pH = 8.0). Under normocapnic conditions, burrowing urchins were seen to reduce the sediment uptake of nitrite or nitrate whilst enhancing the release of silicate and phosphate. In acidified (hypercapnic) treatments, the biological control of biogeochemical cycles by urchins was significantly affected, probably through the combined impacts of high CO2 on nitrifying bacteria, benthic algae and urchin behaviour. This study highlights the importance of considering biological interactions when predicting the consequences of seawater ... : In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Lavigne et al, 2014) 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 is 2014-06-05. ...