Seawater carbonate chemistry and gonado-somatic index of three key Antarctic benthic macroinvertebrates

• Main Authors: Dell'Acqua, Ombretta, Ferrando, Sara, Chiantore, Mariachiara, Asnaghi, Valentina
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2019
• Subjects: Animalia; Antarctic; Benthic animals; Benthos; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Echinodermata; Laboratory experiment; Mollusca; Odontaster validus; Polar; Reproduction; FOS Medical biotechnology; Single species; Sterechinus neumayeri; Type; Species; Registration number of species; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Treatment; Identification; Gonadosomatic index; 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; Carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Fugacity of carbon dioxide in seawater, standard deviation; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Experiment; Potentiometric; Potentiometric titration; Calculated using SWCO2 Hunter, 2007; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Calculated using seacarb after Orr et al. 2018; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Ross Sea; Terra Nova Bay; Antarc*; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.909706; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.909706

CO2 atmospheric pressure is increasing since industrial revolution, leading to a lowering of the ocean surface water pH, a phenomenon known as ocean acidification, with several reported effects on individual species and cascading effects on marine ecosystems. Despite the great amount of literature on ocean acidification effects on calcifying organisms, the response of their reproductive system still remains poorly known. In the present study, we investigated the histopathological effects of low pH on the gonads of three key macroinvertebrates of the Terra Nova Bay (Ross Sea) littoral area: the sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri, the sea star Odontaster validus and the scallop Adamussium colbecki. After 1 month of exposure at control (8.12) and reduced (7.8 and 7.6) pH levels, we dissected the gonads and performed histological analyses to detect potential differences among treatments. Results showed significant effects on reproductive conditions of A. colbecki and S. neumayeri, while O. validus did not show any kind of alteration. Present results reinforce the need to focus on ocean acidification effects on soft tissues, particularly the gonads, whose damage may exert large effects on the individual fitness, with cascading effects on the population dynamic of the species. : In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2019) 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 2019-11-20.