Seawater carbonate chemistry and combined responses of primary coral polyps and their algal endosymbionts to decreasing seawater pH

• Main Authors: Scucchia, Federica, Malik, Assaf, Zaslansky, P, Putnam, H M, Mass, Tali
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2021
• Subjects: Alkalinity; total; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; Basal area; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Calcite saturation state; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Calyx area; Carbon; inorganic; dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Chlorophyll a; Chlorophyll a per cell; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Containers and aquaria (20-1000 L or < 1 m**2); Coral polyp; Crown area; Electron transport rate; relative; EXP; Experiment; Experiment duration; Fluorescence intensity; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth/Morphology; Gulf_of_Eilat; Identification; Initial slope of rapid light curve; Irradiance; Laboratory experiment; Larvae; dead; settled; swimming; Maximum quantum yield of photosystem II; Minimal photoinhibition point; Mortality/Survival; Non photochemical quenching; Number of cells; Number of rapid accretion deposits; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.938670; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.938670

With coral reefs declining globally, resilience of these ecosystems hinges on successful coral recruitment. However, knowledge of the acclimatory and/or adaptive potential in response to environmental challenges such as ocean acidification (OA) in earliest life stages is limited. Our combination of physiological measurements, microscopy, computed tomography techniques and gene expression analysis allowed us to thoroughly elucidate the mechanisms underlying the response of early-life stages of corals, together with their algal partners, to the projected decline in oceanic pH. We observed extensive physiological, morphological and transcriptional changes in surviving recruits, and the transition to a less-skeleton/more-tissue phenotype. We found that decreased pH conditions stimulate photosynthesis and endosymbiont growth, and gene expression potentially linked to photosynthates translocation. Our unique holistic study discloses the previously unseen intricate net of interacting mechanisms that regulate the performance of these organisms in response to OA.