Seawater carbonate chemistry and crab Necora puber size and elements in tissue during experiments, 2010

• Main Authors: Small, Daniel, Calosi, Piero, White, Daniel, Spicer, John I, Widdicombe, Stephen
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2010
• Subjects: Acid-base regulation; Alkalinity; total; standard deviation; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Arthropoda; Atomic absorption spectrometer (Spectr AA 600; Varian); Automated CO2 analyzer (CIBA-Corning 965; UK); Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (<20 L); Calcification/Dissolution; Calcite saturation state; Calculated; see reference(s); Calculated using CO2SYS; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon; inorganic; dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; partial pressure; Coast and continental shelf; Comment; Conductivity meter (WTW; Weilheim; Gemany); Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.778503; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.778503

Ocean acidification (OA) is predicted to play a major role in shaping species biogeography and marine biodiversity over the next century. We tested the effect of medium-term exposure to OA (pH 8.00, 7.30 and 6.70 for 30 d) on acid-base balance in the decapod crab Necora puber-a species that is known to possess good extracellular buffering ability during short-term exposure to hypercapnic conditions. To determine if crabs undergo physiological trade-offs in order to buffer their haemolymph, we characterised a number of fundamental physiological functions, i.e. metabolic rate, tolerance to heat, carapace and chelae [Ca2+] and [Mg2+], haemolymph [Ca2+] and [Mg2+], and immune response in terms of lipid peroxidation. Necora puber was able to buffer changes to extracellular pH over 30 d exposure to hypercapnic water, with no evidence of net shell dissolution, thus demonstrating that HCO3- is actively taken up from the surrounding water. In addition, tolerance to heat, carapace mineralization, and aspects of immune response were not affected by hypercapnic conditions. In contrast, whole-animal O2uptake significantly decreased with hypercapnia, while significant increases in haemolymph [Ca2+] and [Mg2+] and chelae [Mg2+] were observed with hypercapnia. Our results confirm that most physiological functions in N. puber are resistant to low pH/hypercapnia over a longer period than previously investigated, although such resistance comes at the expenses of metabolic rates, haemolymph chemistry and chelae mineralization.