Seawater carbonate chemistry and body size, respiration and photosynthesis of the branching coral Pocillopora verrucosa

• Main Authors: Edmunds, Peter J, Burgess, Scott C
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2016
• Subjects: 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; Pocillopora verrucosa; Primary production/Photosynthesis; Respiration; Single species; South Pacific; Temperature; Tropical; Type; Species; Registration number of species; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Experiment duration; Experiment; Temperature, water; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Class; Identification; Diameter; Area; Mass; Growth rate per area; Growth rate per colony; Respiration rate, oxygen; Gross photosynthesis rate, oxygen; pH; pH, standard error; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard error; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard error; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air, standard error; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard error; Temperature, water, standard error; Salinity; Salinity, standard error; Irradiance; Irradiance, standard error; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Bicarbonate ion; Carbonate ion; Calcite saturation state; Spectrophotometric; Potentiometric titration; Calculated using seacarb; 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.875880; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.875880

Body size has large effects on organism physiology, but these effects remain poorly understood in modular animals with complex morphologies. Using two trials of a 24 day experiment conducted in 2014 and 2015, we tested the hypothesis that colony size of the coral Pocillopora verrucosa affects the response of calcification, aerobic respiration and gross photosynthesis to temperature (26.5 and 29.7°C) and pCO2 (40 and 1000 µatm). Large corals calcified more than small corals, but at a slower size-specific rate; area-normalized calcification declined with size. Whole-colony and area-normalized calcification were unaffected by temperature, pCO2, or the interaction between the two. Whole-colony respiration increased with colony size, but the slopes of these relationships differed between treatments. Area-normalized gross photosynthesis declined with colony size, but whole-colony photosynthesis was unaffected by pCO2, and showed a weak response to temperature. When scaled up to predict the response of large corals, area-normalized metrics of physiological performance measured using small corals provide inaccurate estimates of the physiological performance of large colonies. Together, these results demonstrate the importance of colony size in modulating the response of branching corals to elevated temperature and high pCO2. : In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2016) 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 by seacarb is 2017-06-01.