MCR LTER: Coral Reef: Conspecific aggregation mitigation of OA on calcification of the coral Pocillopora verrucosa, JEXBIO 2017

• Main Authors: Moorea Coral Reef LTER, Evensen, Nicolas, Edmunds, Peter
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Environmental Data Initiative 2019
• Subjects: Evensen; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/a340601149f1c55fe402188b7578ea69; https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?packageid=knb-lter-mcr.5021.10

The study was conducted in April 2015 in Moorea, French Polynesia, using colonies of Pocillopora verrucosa (~ 4 cm in planar diameter) collected from the outer reef of the north shore at 10–12 m depth. Corals were collected from multiple sites separated by 100-200 m on the outer reef to maximize the likelihood that the selected coral colonies were genetically unique, and transferred directly to an acclimation tank. The experiment used a sequential design, in which corals first were incubated under 130 ambient or elevated pCO2 in flow-through tanks, and then were incubated in a recirculating flume under the same pCO2 crossed with a contrast of two colony densities (Fig. S1). Two response variables were measured in the light (calcification and net photosynthesis at a single irradiance), two response variables were measured in the dark (aerobic respiration and calcification), and two response variables were calculated from these values (gross 135 photosynthesis, and calcification integrated over 24 h). Aerobic respiration was measured as oxygen uptake, and net photosynthesis was measured as the flux of oxygen at a constant irradiance, and in both cases, oxygen uptake was given a negative notation and oxygen evolution a positive notation; gross photosynthesis was obtained by subtracting respiration from net photosynthesis. Daily calcification was calculated by integrating calcification in the 140 light over 12 h, calcification in the dark over 12 h, and summing the two values assuming each day consisted of 12 h of light at a constant intensity. The six response variables were measured for aggregates of a fixed number (n = 12) of similar-sized colonies placed in the flume in either high or low density arrays. With this design, it was not possible to measure the physiology of individual colonies in each aggregate, and therefore our results describe the 145 performance corals averaged across each aggregate. These data support the publication Evensen & Edmunds, 'Conspecific aggregations mitigte the effects of ocean acidification on calcification of the coral Pocillopora verrucosa', JEXBIO 2017, doi:10.1242/jeb.152488. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. OCE 16-37396 (and earlier awards) as well as a generous gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Research was completed under permits issued by the French Polynesian Government (Délégation à la Recherche) and the Haut-commissariat de la République en Polynésie Francaise (DTRT) (Protocole d'Accueil 2005-2018). This work represents a contribution of the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER Site.