Effects of elevated pCO2 on the post-settlement development of Pocillopora damicornis

Ocean acidification represents a key threat to the recruitment of scleractinian corals. Here, we investigated the effect of increased partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) on the early development of Pocillopora damicornis by rearing the recruits for 12 days at 3 pCO2 levels (446, 896 and 1681 µ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jiang, Lei, Huang, Hui, Yuan, Xiangcheng, Yuan, Tao, Zhang, Yuyang, Wen, Colin Kuo-Chang, Li, Xiubao, Zhou, Guowei
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA 2015
Subjects:
Alkalinity
total
standard error
Animalia
Aragonite saturation state
Area
Benthic animals
Benthos
Bicarbonate ion
Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition
Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (<20 L)
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
Electron transport rate
relative
EXP
Experiment
Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air)
Growth/Morphology
Growth rate
Ocean acidification
Online Access:https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.860871
https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.860871
Description
Summary:Ocean acidification represents a key threat to the recruitment of scleractinian corals. Here, we investigated the effect of increased partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) on the early development of Pocillopora damicornis by rearing the recruits for 12 days at 3 pCO2 levels (446, 896 and 1681 µatm). Results showed that increased pCO2 exerted minor effects on symbiont density and maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm), while significantly enhanced the relative electron transport through photosystem II (PSII) of Symbiodinium. Notably, calcification and biomass of recruits decreased sharply by 34% and 24% respectively in 896 µatm, and tended to remain constant as pCO2 was raised from 896 to 1681 µatm. Furthermore, recruits in 1681 matm, with comparable surface area as those in 896 µatm, produced fewer buds. These findings indicated that juvenile P. damicornis under high pCO2 would enhance electron transport rate and suppress asexual budding to favor skeletal and tissue growths, which are more critical for their persistence and survival in a high pCO2 environment. This work suggested the physiological plasticity of juvenile corals under short-term exposure to elevated pCO2.

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