Seawater carbonate chemistry and calcification during an experiment with a coral Porites lutea, 2004

• Main Authors: Ohde, Shigeru, Hossain, Mirza M Mozaffar
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2004
• Subjects: Alkalinity; total; Alkalinity anomaly technique (Smith and Key; 1975); Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (<20 L); Calcification/Dissolution; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Calcite saturation state; Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon; inorganic; dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Date/time end; Date/time start; EPOCA; EUR-OCEANS; European network of excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis; European Project on Ocean Acidification; EXP; Experiment; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Laboratory experiment; Measured; North Pacific; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; OH_04; PAR-sensor LI-250; LI-COR Inc.; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; pH meter (HM-60S; TOA Electronic; Japan); Porites lutea; Radiation; photosynthetically active; Salinity; Salinometer (601 MK III; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.721879; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.721879

Using living corals collected from Okinawan coral reefs, laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the relationship between coral calcification and aragonite saturation state (W) of seawater at 25 infinity C. Calcification rate of a massive coral Porites lutea cultured in a beaker showed a linear increase with increasing Waragonite values (1.08-7.77) of seawater. The increasing trend of calcification rate (c) for W is expressed as an equation, c = aW + b (a, b: constants). When W was larger than ~4, the coral samples calcified during nighttime, indicating an evidence of dark calcification. This study strongly suggests that calcification of Porites lutea depends on W of ambient seawater. A decrease in saturation state of seawater due to increased pCO2 may decrease reef-building capacity of corals through reducing calcification rate of corals.