Effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on an intertidal meiobenthic community, supplement to: Meadows, A S; Ingels, Jeroen; Widdicombe, Stephen; Hale, Rachel; Rundle, Simon (2015): Effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on an intertidal meiobenthic community. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 469, 44-56

• Main Authors: Meadows, A S, Ingels, Jeroen, Widdicombe, Stephen, Hale, Rachel, Rundle, Simon
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2015
• Subjects: Amphimonhystera sp.; Benthos; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Coast and continental shelf; Community composition and diversity; Entire community; Laboratory experiment; North Atlantic; Rocky-shore community; Temperate; Temperature; Type; Taxon/taxa; Treatment; Identification; Replicate; Sample ID; Counts; Species; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; pH; pH, standard deviation; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Experiment; Potentiometric; Colorimetric; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Hale; Ocean acidification; Copepods
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.859078; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.859078

In the near future, the marine environment is likely to be subjected to simultaneous increases in temperature and decreased pH. The potential effects of these changes on intertidal, meiofaunal assemblages were investigated using a mesocosm experiment. Artificial Substrate Units containing meiofauna from the extreme low intertidal zone were exposed for 60 days to eight experimental treatments (four replicates for each treatment) comprising four pH levels: 8.0 (ambient control), 7.7 & 7.3 (predicted changes associated with ocean acidification), and 6.7 (CO2 point-source leakage from geological storage), crossed with two temperatures: 12 °C (ambient control) and 16 °C (predicted). Community structure, measured using major meiofauna taxa was significantly affected by pH and temperature. Copepods and copepodites showed the greatest decline in abundance in response to low pH and elevated temperature. Nematodes increased in abundance in response to low pH and temperature rise, possibly caused by decreased predation and competition for food owing to the declining macrofauna density. Nematode species composition changed significantly between the different treatments, and was affected by both seawater acidification and warming. Estimated nematode species diversity, species evenness, and the maturity index, were substantially lower at 16 °C, whereas trophic diversity was slightly higher at 16 °C except at pH 6.7. This study has demonstrated that the combination of elevated levels of CO2 and ocean warming may have substantial effects on structural and functional characteristics of meiofaunal and nematode communities, and that single stressor experiments are unlikely to encompass the complexity of abiotic and biotic interactions. At the same time, ecological interactions may lead to complex community responses to pH and temperature changes in the interstitial environment. : 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). The date of carbonate chemistry calculation is 2016-03-18.