Data from: Low recruitment due to altered settlement substrata as primary constraint for coral communities under ocean acidification

• Main Authors: Fabricius, Katharina E., Noonan, Sam H.C., Abrego, David, Harrington, Lindsay, De'ath, Glenn, Noonan, Sam H. C.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) 2020
• Subjects: Life sciences; medicine and health care; climate change; carbon dioxide; Reef resilience; coral reproduction; Crustose coralline algae; Scleractinia; Acropora tenuis; Scleractinian coral; Papua New Guinea; envir; geo; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.327c2

The future of coral reefs under increasing CO2 depends on their capacity to recover from disturbances. To predict the recovery potential of coral communities that are fully acclimatized to elevated CO2, we compared the relative success of coral recruitment and later life stages at two volcanic CO2 seeps and adjacent control sites in Papua New Guinea. Our field experiments showed that the effects of ocean acidification (OA) on coral recruitment rates were up to an order of magnitude greater than the effects on the survival and growth of established corals. Settlement rates, recruit and juvenile densities were best predicted by the presence of crustose coralline algae, as opposed to the direct effects of seawater CO2. Offspring from high CO2 acclimatized parents had similarly impaired settlement rates as offspring from control parents. For most coral taxa, field data showed no evidence of cumulative and compounding detrimental effects of high CO2 on successive life stages, and three taxa showed improved adult performance at high CO2 that compensated for their low recruitment rates. Our data suggest that severely declining capacity for reefs to recover, due to altered settlement substrata and reduced coral recruitment, is likely to become a dominant mechanism of how OA will alter coral reefs. Carbonate chemistry of the two study reefs - means over sitesCarbonate chemistry of the two study reefs - mean values per site at high CO2 at the CO2 seeps, and their adjacent control sites.a wq 2 reefs means over sites.csvCarbonate chemistry of the two study reefs - means over tilesCarbonate chemistry of the two study reefs - mean values for each of the settlement tiles.a wq 2 reefs means over tiles.csvSettlement choice experimentsChoice of larvae of Acropora tenuis to settle on settlement substrata from either High-CO2 or Control sites.b1 choice expts14 final.csvSettlement no-choice experimentsSettlement rates of Acropora tenuis larvae from parents originating from high CO2 or control sites.b2 no-choice expts 123.csvSurvival ...