Seawater carbonate chemistry and calcification in Caribbean reef-building corals

• Main Authors: Enzor, Laura A, Hankins, Cheryl, Vivian, Deborah N, Fisher, William S, Barron, Mace G
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2018
• Subjects: Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Calcification/Dissolution; Cnidaria; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Growth/Morphology; Laboratory experiment; Laboratory strains; Montastraea cavernosa; North Atlantic; Orbicella faveolata; Pseudodiploria clivosa; Single species; Type; Species; Registration number of species; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Experiment duration; Treatment; Day of experiment; Buoyant weight; Area; Tissue, surface area density; Time point, descriptive; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Growth rate; Change; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; pH; pH, 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; 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; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.891261; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.891261

Projected increases in ocean pCO2 levels are anticipated to affect calcifying organisms more rapidly and to a greater extent than other marine organisms. The effects of ocean acidification (OA) have been documented in numerous species of corals in laboratory studies, largely tested using flow-through exposure systems. We developed a recirculating ocean acidification exposure system that allows precise pCO2 control using a combination of off-gassing measures including aeration, water retention devices, venturi injectors, and CO2 scrubbing. We evaluated the recirculating system performance in off-gassing effectiveness and maintenance of target pCO2 levels over an 84-day experiment. The system was used to identify changes in calcification and tissue growth in response to elevated pCO2 (1000 μatm) in three reef-building corals of the Caribbean: Pseudodiploria clivosa, Montastraea cavernosa, and Orbicella faveolata. All three species displayed an overall increase in net calcification over the 84-day exposure period regardless of pCO2 level (control + 0.28–1.12 g, elevated pCO2 + 0.18–1.16 g), and the system was effective at both off-gassing acidified water to ambient pCO2 levels, and maintaining target elevated pCO2 levels over the 3-month experiment. : 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 2018-05-23.