Effects of reduced and business-as-usual CO2 emission scenarios on the algal territories of the damselfish Pomacentrus wardi (Pomacentridae), supplement to: Bender, Dorothea; Champ, Connor Michael; Kline, David I; Diaz-Pulido, Guillermo; Dove, Sophie (2015): Effects of “reduced” and “business-as-usual” CO2 emission scenarios on the algal territories of the damselfish Pomacentrus wardi (Pomacentridae). PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0131442

• Main Authors: Bender, Dorothea, Champ, Connor Michael, Kline, David I, Diaz-Pulido, Guillermo, Dove, Sophie
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2015
• Subjects: Benthos; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; Coast and continental shelf; Community composition and diversity; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Entire community; Growth/Morphology; Laboratory experiment; Primary production/Photosynthesis; Respiration; Soft-bottom community; South Pacific; Temperature; Tropical; Type; Species; Treatment; Sample ID; Dry mass; Ash free dry mass; Biomass, ash free dry mass per area; Height; Diameter; Time point, descriptive; Identification; Replicate; Number; Net photosynthesis rate, oxygen; Respiration rate, oxygen; Salinity; Salinity, standard error; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; pH; pH, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Ammonium; Ammonium, standard error; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Bicarbonate ion; Carbonate ion; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Aragonite saturation state; Calcite saturation state; Experiment; Calculated using CO2SYS; Potentiometric titration; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Austral; Pacific; Diaz; Heron Island; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.860466; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.860466

Turf algae are a very important component of coral reefs, featuring high growth and turnover rates, whilst covering large areas of substrate. As food for many organisms, turf algae have an important role in the ecosystem. Farming damselfish can modify the species composition and productivity of such algal assemblages, while defending them against intruders. Like all organisms however, turf algae and damselfishes have the potential to be affected by future changes in seawater (SW) temperature and pCO2. In this study, algal assemblages, in the presence and absence of farming Pomacentrus wardi were exposed to two combinations of SW temperature and pCO2 levels projected for the austral spring of 2100 (the B1 "reduced" and the A1FI "business-as-usual" CO2 emission scenarios) at Heron Island (GBR, Australia). These assemblages were dominated by the presence of red algae and non-epiphytic cyanobacteria, i.e. cyanobacteria that grow attached to the substrate rather than on filamentous algae. The endpoint algal composition was mostly controlled by the presence/absence of farming damselfish, despite a large variability found between the algal assemblages of individual fish. Different scenarios appeared to be responsible for a mild, species specific change in community composition, observable in some brown and green algae, but only in the absence of farming fish. Farming fish appeared unaffected by the conditions to which they were exposed. Algal biomass reductions were found under "reduced" CO2 emission, but not "business-as-usual" scenarios. This suggests that action taken to limit CO2 emissions may, if the majority of algae behave similarly across all seasons, reduce the potential for phase shifts that lead to algal dominated communities. At the same time the availability of food resources to damselfish and other herbivores would be smaller under "reduced" emission scenarios. : 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 2016-05-16.