Seawater carbonate chemistry and density and size-frequency distribution, shell morphology, shell integrity, fracture resistance, and desiccation tolerance of intertidal gastropod

• Main Authors: Viotti, Sofía, Sangil, Carlos, Hernández, Celso Agustín, Hernández, José Carlos
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2019
• Subjects: Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; CO2 vent; Coast and continental shelf; Field observation; Mollusca; Mortality/Survival; North Atlantic; Other studied parameter or process; Phorcus sauciatus; Single species; Temperate; Type; Species; Registration number of species; Uniform resource locator/link to reference; Transect number; Identification; Shell width; Shell length; Aspect ratio; Site; Abundance per area; Abundance, standard error; Aspect ratio, standard error; Corrosion; Corrosion, standard error; Shell break; Shell break, standard error; Individuals; Force; Force, standard error; Size; Temperature, water; Time in hours; Dead; Dessication tolerance; Salinity; pH; Alkalinity, total; Calcite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Fugacity of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide water at sea surface temperature wet air; Bicarbonate ion; Carbonate ion; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Experiment; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. 2010; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre OA-ICC; North East Atlantic; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.914522; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.914522

Volcanic CO2 vents are useful environments for investigating the biological responses of marine organisms to changing ocean conditions (Ocean acidification, OA). Marine shelled molluscs are highly sensitive to changes in seawater carbonate chemistry. In this study, we investigated the effects of reduced pH on the intertidal gastropod, Phorcus sauciatus, in a volcanic CO2 vent off La Palma Island (Canary Islands, North East Atlantic Ocean), a location with a natural pH gradient ranging from 7.0 to 8.2 over the tidal cycles. Density and size-frequency distribution, shell morphology, shell integrity, fracture resistance, and desiccation tolerance were evaluated between populations from control and CO2 vent sites. We found no effects of reduced pH on population parameters or desiccation tolerance across the pH gradient, but significant differences in shell morphology, shell integrity, and fracture resistance were detected. Individuals from the CO2 vent site exhibited a higher shell aspect ratio, greater percentages of shell dissolution and break, and compromised shell strength than those from the control site. Our results highlight that long-term exposure to high pCO2 can negatively affect the shell features of P. sauciatus but may not have a significant effect on population performance. Moreover, we suggest that loss of shell properties could lead to changes in predator-prey interactions. : 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 2020-04-02.