Effects of ocean acidification on sponge communities, supplement to: Goodwin, Claire; Rodolfo-Metalpa, Riccardo; Picton, Bernard; Hall-Spencer, Jason M (2014): Effects of ocean acidification on sponge communities. Marine Ecology, 35, 41-49

• Main Authors: Goodwin, Claire, Rodolfo-Metalpa, Riccardo, Picton, Bernard, Hall-Spencer, Jason M
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2014
• Subjects: Benthos; Chondrilla nucula; Chondrosia reniformis; CO2 vent; Coast and continental shelf; Community composition and diversity; Crambe crambe; Entire community; Eurypon major; Field observation; Growth/Morphology; Haliclona mediterranea; Hemimycale columella; Ircinia variabilis; Mediterranean Sea; Microciona cf toxitenuis; Petrosia ficiformis; Phorbas ficticius; Phorbas fictitius; Phorbas tenacior; Rocky-shore community; Sarcotragus spinosulus; Scalarispongia scalaris; Spirastrella cunctatrix; Temperate; Species; Station label; Coverage; Coverage, standard error; Identification; Description; Area; Distance; pH; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Carbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion; Calcite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state; Salinity; Temperature, water; Alkalinity, total; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Experiment; Potentiometric; Calculated using CO2SYS; Potentiometric titration; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Mediterranean Sea Acidification in a Changing Climate MedSeA; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Goodwin; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.833805; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.833805

The effects of ocean acidification on lower invertebrates such as sponges may be pronounced because of their low capacity for acid-base regulation. However, so far, most studies have focused on calcifiers. We present the first study of the effects of ocean acidification on the Porifera. Sponge species composition and cover along pH gradients at CO2 vents off Ischia (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) was measured at sites with normal pH (8.1-8.2), lowered pH (mean 7.8-7.9, min 7.4-7.5) and extremely low pH (6.6). There was a strong correlation between pH and both sponge cover and species composition. Crambe crambe was the only species present in any abundance in the areas with mean pH 6.6, seven species were present at mean pH 7.8-7.9 and four species (Phorbas tenacior, Petrosia ficiformis, Chondrilla nucula and Hemimycale columella) were restricted to sites with normal pH. Sponge percentage cover decreased significantly from normal to acidified sites. No significant effect of increasing CO2 levels and decreasing pH was found on spicule form in Crambe crambe. This study indicates that increasing CO2 concentrations will likely affect sponge community composition as some demosponge species appear to be more vulnerable than others. Further research into the mechanisms by which acidification affects sponges would be useful in predicting likely effects on sessile marine communities. : 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 2014-07-03.