Combined ocean acidification and low temperature stressors cause coral mortality

• Main Authors: Kavousi, Javid, Parkinson, John Everett, Nakamura, Takashi
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2016
• Subjects: Alkalinity; total; standard deviation; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Bise_Okinawa; Bottles or small containers/Aquaria (<20 L); Calcification/Dissolution; Calcification rate; Calcite saturation state; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon; inorganic; dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; partial pressure; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Colony number/ID; EXP; Experiment; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Laboratory experiment; Montipora digitata; Mortality; Mortality/Survival; North Pacific; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; Primary production/Photosynthesis; Protein per surface area; Ratio; Registration number of species; Salinity; Single species; Species; Temperate; Temperature; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.868905; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.868905

Oceans are predicted to become more acidic and experience more temperature variability-both hot and cold-as climate changes. Ocean acidification negatively impacts reef-building corals, especially when interacting with other stressors such as elevated temperature. However, the effects of combined acidification and low temperature stress have yet to be assessed. Here, we exposed nubbins of the scleractinian coral Montipora digitata to ecologically relevant acidic, cold, or combined stress for 2 weeks. Coral nubbins exhibited 100% survival in isolated acidic and cold treatments, but 30% mortality under combined conditions. These results provide further evidence that coupled stressors have an interactive effect on coral physiology, and reveal that corals in colder environments are also susceptible to the deleterious impacts of coupled ocean acidification and thermal stress.