Seawater carbonate chemistry and skeletal morphology of massive Porites spp. corals ...

• Main Authors: Allison, Nicola, Ross, Phoebe, Brasier, Alex, Cieminska, Nadia, Martin, Nicolas Lopez, Cole, Catherine, Hintz, Chris, Hintz, Ken, Finch, Adrian A
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2022
• Subjects: Animalia; Benthic animals; Benthos; Cnidaria; Containers and aquaria 20-1000 L or < 1 m**2; Growth/Morphology; Laboratory experiment; Laboratory strains; Not applicable; Porites lutea; Porites murrayensis; Single species; Type; Species, unique identification; Species, unique identification URI; Species, unique identification Semantic URI; Genotype; Treatment partial pressure of carbon dioxide; Surface area; Percentage; Width; Width, standard deviation; Replicates; Confidence interval; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Calcium; Calcium ion, standard deviation; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved, standard deviation; Boron hydroxide; Boron hydroxide, standard deviation; Ammonium; Ammonium, standard deviation; Phosphate; Phosphate, standard deviation; Silicate; Silicate, standard deviation; Nitrate and Nitrite; Nitrate and Nitrite, standard deviation; Carbonate system computation flag; pH; 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; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.946138; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.946138

Ocean acidification alters the dissolved inorganic carbon chemistry of seawater and can reduce the calcification rates of tropical corals. Here we explore the effect of altering seawater pCO2 on the skeletal morphology of 4 genotypes of massive Porites spp. which display widely different calcification rates. Increasing seawater pCO2 causes significant changes in in the skeletal morphology of all Porites spp. studied regardless of whether or not calcification was significantly affected by seawater pCO2. Both the median calyx size and the proportion of skeletal surface occupied by the calices decreased significantly at 750 µatm compared to 400 µatm indicating that polyp size shrinks in this genus in response to ocean acidification. The coenosteum, connecting calices, expands to occupy a larger proportion of the coral surface to compensate for this decrease in calyx area. At high seawater pCO2 the spines deposited at the skeletal surface became more numerous and the trabeculae (vertical skeletal pillars) became ... : In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2021) 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 2022-07-07. ...