Seawater carbon chemistry and feeding and growth of juvenile crownof-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci

• Main Authors: Kamya, Pamela Z, Byrne, Maria, Mos, Benjamin, Hall, Lauren C, Dworjanyn, Symon A
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2017
• Subjects: Acanthaster planci; Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Calcification/Dissolution; Coast and continental shelf; Echinodermata; Growth/Morphology; Laboratory experiment; Single species; South Pacific; Tropical; Type; Species; Registration number of species; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Experiment duration; Treatment; Consumption; Growth rate; Growth rate, linear; Number; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Carbon; Carbon, organic, total; Carbon, inorganic, total; Nitrogen, total; Carbon/Nitrogen ratio; Salinity; Salinity, standard error; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard error; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard error; pH; pH, standard error; 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; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, 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; Experiment; Potentiometric titration; Potentiometric; Calculated using CO2SYS; 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.878078; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.878078

The indirect effects of changing climate in modulating trophic interactions can be as important as the direct effects of climate stressors on consumers. The success of the herbivorous juvenile stage of the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS), Acanthaster planci, may be affected by the impacts of ocean conditions on its crustose coralline algal (CCA) food. To partition the direct effects of near future ocean acidification on juvenile COTS and indirect effects through changes in their CCA food, COTS were grown in three pHT levels (7.9, 7.8, 7.6) and fed CCA grown at similar pH levels. Consumption of CCA by COTS was bolstered when the COTS were grown in low pH and when they were fed CCA grown in low pH regardless of the pH in which the COTS were reared. COTS fed CCA grown at pH 7.6 grew fastest, but the pH/pCO2 that the COTS were reared in had no direct effect on growth. Ocean acidification conditions decreased the C : N ratio and carbonate levels in the CCA. Bolstered growth in COTS may be driven by enhanced palatability, increased nutritive state and reduced defences of their CCA food. These results indicate that near future acidification will increase the success of early juvenile COTS and boost recruitment into the coral-eating life stage. : 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 2017-07-19.