Publication Date:
2024-03-15
Description:
The stratified Chilean Comau Fjord sustains a dense population of the cold-water coral (CWC) Desmophyllum dianthus in aragonite supersaturated shallow and aragonite undersaturated deep water. This provides a rare opportunity to evaluate CWC fitness trade-offs in response to physico-chemical drivers and their variability. Here, we combined year-long reciprocal transplantation experiments along natural oceanographic gradients with an in situ assessment of CWC fitness. Following transplantation, corals acclimated fast to the novel environment with no discernible difference between native and novel (i.e. cross-transplanted) corals, demonstrating high phenotypic plasticity. Surprisingly, corals exposed to lowest aragonite saturation (Omega arag 〈 1) and temperature (T 〈 12.0 °C), but stable environmental conditions, at the deep station grew fastest and expressed the fittest phenotype. We found an inverse relationship between CWC fitness and environmental variability and propose to consider the high frequency fluctuations of abiotic and biotic factors to better predict the future of CWCs in a changing ocean.
Keywords:
A, As; Alkalinity, total; Animalia; Aragonite saturation state; B; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Biomass; Biomass/Abundance/Elemental composition; C; Calcification/Dissolution; Calcification rate; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate; Calcite saturation state; Calculated using seacarb after Nisumaa et al. (2010); Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; Carbonate ion; Carbonate system computation flag; Carbon dioxide; Cnidaria; Coast and continental shelf; Comau Fjord, Patagonia, Chile; CTD; D; Depth, description; DEPTH, water; Desmophyllum dianthus; Ed; Es; Event label; F, Fs, Lillihuapy, Lilliguapi; Field experiment; Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth/Morphology; Identification; LATITUDE; Length; Liliguapi; LONGITUDE; Method comment; Monitoring station; MONS; Near_SWALL; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Oxygen; Pared_de_la_cruz; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; Pirate_Cove; Respiration; Respiration rate, oxygen; Rio_Tambor; Salinity; Season; Single species; South Pacific; Species, unique identification; Species, unique identification (Semantic URI); Species, unique identification (URI); Station label; Temperate; Temperature, variability; Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Temperature logger, UTBI-001 TidbiT; Type; X-Telele; X-Telele_deep
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 20157 data points
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