Effects of pCO2 on spatial competition between the corals Montipora aequituberculata and Porites lutea

• Main Authors: Evensen, Nicolas R, Edmunds, Peter J, Sakai, Kazuhiko
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2015
• Subjects: Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Growth/Morphology; Laboratory experiment; Montipora aequituberculata; North Pacific; Other; Porites lutea; South Pacific; Species interaction; Temperate; Tropical; Event label; Type; Location; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; Species; Registration number of species; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Identification; Treatment; Linear extension; Temperature, water; pH; 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; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard error; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard error; Salinity; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Bicarbonate ion; Carbonate ion; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Calcite saturation state; Experiment; Potentiometric; Calculated using seacarb; 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.868434; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.868434

We tested the hypothesis that ocean acidification (OA) affects spatial competition among scleractinian corals. Competitive ability was evaluated indirectly by linear extension of Porites lutea and Montipora aequituberculata placed in intraspecific, interspecific, and control pairings (paired with dead coral skeleton) and exposed to ambient (400 µatm) and elevated (1000 µatm) pCO2 in experiments conducted in Moorea, French Polynesia, and Okinawa, Japan. High pCO2 had no effect on linear extension of M. aequituberculata in Moorea, but in Okinawa, it reduced linear extension 37%; high pCO2 had no significant effect on linear extension of P. lutea in Okinawa. Much of the negative effect of high pCO2 on linear extension for M. aequituberculata in Okinawa was due to reduced extension in control pairings, with corals engaged in intra- and interspecific competition unaffected by OA. Linear extension of M. aequituberculata and P. lutea in interspecific pairings decreased relative to control pairings at ambient pCO2 by 39 and 71%, respectively, indicating a strong effect of competition on extension rates. These differences however disappeared at elevated pCO2 when the linear extension of controls was depressed. Together, our results show that OA can negatively affect the linear extension of corals not engaged in competition, as shown in the control pairings, and suggest that OA does not directly affect the ability of corals to compete with one another for space. : 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 2016-11-15.