Publication Date:
2024-03-15
Description:
Ocean acidification (OA) poses a major threat to calcifying organisms such as reef-building corals, typically leading to reduced calcification rates. Mechanisms to compensate the effects of OA on coral growth may, however, involve processes other than calcification. Yet, the physiological patterns mediating coral growth under OA are not fully understood, despite an extensive body of literature characterizing physiological changes in corals under OA. Therefore, we conducted a three-month laboratory experiment with six scleractinian coral species (Acropora humilis, Acropora millepora, Pocillopora damicornis, Pocillopora verrucosa, Porites cylindrica, and Porites lutea) to assess physiological parameters that potentially characterize growth (calcification, volume, and surface area), maintenance (tissue biomass, and lipid and protein content), and cellular stress (apoptotic activity) response under ambient (pH 7.9) and low pH (pH 7.7). We identified genus- and species-specific physiological parameters potentially mediating the observed growth responses to low pH. We found no significant changes in calcification but species showed decreasing growth in volume and surface area, which occurred alongside changes in maintenance and cellular stress parameters that differed between genera and species. Acropora spp. showed elevated cellular stress and Pocillopora spp. showed changes in maintenance-associated parameters, while both genera largely maintained growth under low pH. Conversely, Porites spp. experienced the largest decreases in volume growth but showed no major changes in parameters related to maintenance or cellular stress. Our findings indicate that growth- and calcification-related responses alone may not fully reflect coral susceptibility to OA. They may also contribute to a better understanding of the complex physiological processes leading to differential growth changes of reef-building corals in response to low pH conditions.
Keywords:
Acropora humilis; Acropora millepora; Alkalinity, total; Alkalinity, total, standard deviation; Animalia; Apoptotic activity, per protein; Apoptotic activity, per protein, standard deviation; Aragonite saturation state; Aragonite saturation state, standard deviation; Benthic animals; Benthos; Bicarbonate ion; Calcification/Dissolution; Calcification rate, standard deviation; Calcification rate of calcium carbonate per month; 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; Containers and aquaria (20-1000 L or 〈 1 m**2); Fugacity of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); Growth/Morphology; Growth rate; Growth rate, standard deviation; Growth rate, volume per surface area; Laboratory experiment; Lipids, per ash free dry mass; Lipids, standard deviation; OA-ICC; Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre; Other studied parameter or process; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide, standard deviation; Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (water) at sea surface temperature (wet air); pH; pH, standard deviation; Pocillopora damicornis; Pocillopora verrucosa; Porites cylindrica; Porites lutea; Proteins, per ash free dry mass; Proteins, standard deviation; Replicates; Respiration; Salinity; Salinity, standard deviation; Single species; South Pacific; Species, unique identification; Species, unique identification (Semantic URI); Species, unique identification (URI); Temperature, water; Temperature, water, standard deviation; Tissue biomass; Tissue biomass, standard deviation; Treatment; Tropical; Type
Type:
Dataset
Format:
text/tab-separated-values, 600 data points
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