Effects of ocean acidification on population dynamics and community structure of crustose coralline algae, supplement to: Ordoñez, Alexandra; Doropoulos, Christopher; Diaz-Pulido, Guillermo (2014): Effects of ocean acidification on population dynamics and community structure of crustose coralline algae. Biological Bulletin, 226(3), 255-268

• Main Authors: Ordoñez, Alexandra, Doropoulos, Christopher, Diaz-Pulido, Guillermo
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2014
• Subjects: Benthos; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Coast and continental shelf; Community composition and diversity; Entire community; Hydrolithon boreale; Hydrolithon sp.; Laboratory experiment; Neogoniolithon; Pneophyllum sp.; Porolithon onkodes; Reproduction; FOS Medical biotechnology; Rocky-shore community; South Pacific; Sporolithon sp.; Temperate; Species; Figure; Treatment; Identification; Coverage; Abundance per area; Abundance; Area in square milimeter; Salinity; Salinity, standard error; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard error; pH; pH, standard error; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, 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; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard error; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard error; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard error; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Aragonite saturation state; Experiment; Potentiometric; Potentiometric titration; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Diaz; Pacific; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.836793; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.836793

Calcification and growth of crustose coralline algae (CCA) are affected by elevated seawater pCO2 and associated changes in carbonate chemistry. However, the effects of ocean acidification (OA) on population and community-level responses of CCA have barely been investigated. We explored changes in community structure and population dynamics (size structure and reproduction) of CCA in response to OA. Recruited from an experimental flow-through system, CCA settled onto the walls of plastic aquaria and developed under exposure to one of three pCO2 treatments (control [present day, 389±6 ppm CO2], medium [753±11 ppm], and high [1267±19 ppm]). Elevated pCO2 reduced total CCA abundance and affected community structure, in particular the density of the dominant species Pneophyllum sp. and Porolithon onkodes. Meanwhile, the relative abundance of P. onkodes declined from 24% under control CO2 to 8.3% in high CO2 (65% change), while the relative abundance of Pneophyllum sp. remained constant. Population size structure of P. onkodes differed significantly across treatments, with fewer larger individuals under high CO2. In contrast, the population size structure and number of reproductive structures (conceptacles) per crust of Pneophyllum sp. was similar across treatments. The difference in the magnitude of the response of species abundance and population size structure between species may have the potential to induce species composition changes in the future. These results demonstrate that the impacts of OA on key coral reef builders go beyond declines in calcification and growth, and suggest important changes to aspects of population dynamics and community ecology. : 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 2014-10-16.