Coral calcifying fluid pH dictates response to ocean acidification ...

• Main Authors: Holcomb, Michael, Venn, Alexander A, Tambutté, Eric, Tambutté, Sylvie, Allemand, Denis, Trotter, Julie, McCulloch, Malcolm T
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2014
• Subjects: Acid-base regulation; Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Calcification/Dissolution; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Growth/Morphology; Laboratory experiment; Single species; South Pacific; Stylophora pistillata; Temperate; Species; Figure; pH; pH, standard deviation; Growth, relative; Growth, relative, standard deviation; Calcifying fluid, pH; Calcifying fluid, pH, standard deviation; Difference; Difference, standard deviation; Identification; Incubation duration; Group; δ11B; δ11B, standard error; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Salinity; Temperature, water; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Partial pressure 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; Pacific; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.843920; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.843920

Ocean acidification driven by rising levels of CO2 impairs calcification, threatening coral reef growth. Predicting how corals respond to CO2 requires a better understanding of how calcification is controlled. Here we show how spatial variations in the pH of the internal calcifying fluid (pHcf) in coral (Stylophora pistillata) colonies correlates with differential sensitivity of calcification to acidification. Coral apexes had the highest pHcf and experienced the smallest changes in pHcf in response to acidification. Lateral growth was associated with lower pHcf and greater changes with acidification. Calcification showed a pattern similar to pHcf, with lateral growth being more strongly affected by acidification than apical. Regulation of pHcf is therefore spatially variable within a coral and critical to determining the sensitivity of calcification to ocean acidification. ... : In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2015) 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). ...