Seawater carbonate chemistry and intertidal benthic foraminiferal growth and calcification, supplement to: Guaman-Guevara, Fabricio; Austin, Heather; Hicks, Natalie; Streeter, Richard; Austin, William EN (2019): Impacts of ocean acidification on intertidal benthic foraminiferal growth and calcification. PLoS ONE, 14(8), e0220046

• Main Authors: Guaman-Guevara, Fabricio, Austin, Heather, Hicks, Natalie, Streeter, Richard, Austin, William EN
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2019
• Subjects: Benthos; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria <20 L; Brackish waters; Calcification/Dissolution; Chromista; Elphidium williamsoni; Foraminifera; Growth/Morphology; Heterotrophic prokaryotes; Laboratory experiment; Mortality/Survival; North Atlantic; Single species; Temperate; Type; Species; Registration number of species; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Treatment; Number; Category; Diameter; Mass; pH; pH, standard deviation; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Bicarbonate ion; Bicarbonate ion, standard deviation; Carbonate ion; Carbonate ion, standard deviation; Calcite saturation state; Calcite saturation state, standard deviation; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Experiment; Potentiometric; Potentiometric titration; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; Austin; Hicks; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.911695; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.911695

Foraminifera are expected to be particularly susceptible to future changes in ocean carbonate chemistry as a function of increased atmospheric CO2. Studies in an experimental recirculating seawater system were performed with a dominant benthic foraminiferal species collected from intertidal mudflats. We investigated the experimental impacts of ocean acidification on survival, growth/calcification, morphology and the biometric features of a calcareous species Elphidium williamsoni. Foraminifera were exposed for 6 weeks to four different pH treatments that replicated future scenarios of a high CO2 atmosphere resulting in lower seawater pH. Results revealed that declining seawater pH caused a decline in foraminiferal survival rate and growth/calcification (mainly through test weight reduction). Scanning electron microscopy image analysis of live specimens at the end of the experimental period show changes in foraminiferal morphology with clear signs of corrosion and cracking on the test surface, septal bridges, sutures and feeding structures of specimens exposed to the lowest pH conditions. These findings suggest that the morphological changes observed in shell feeding structures may serve to alter: (1) foraminiferal feeding efficiency and their long-term ecological competitiveness, (2) the energy transferred within the benthic food web with a subsequent shift in benthic community structures and (3) carbon cycling and total CaCO3 production, both highly significant processes in coastal waters. These experimental results open-up the possibility of modelling future impacts of ocean acidification on both calcification and dissolution in benthic foraminifera within mid-latitude intertidal environments, with potential implications for understanding the changing marine carbon cycle. : 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 2020-02-03.