Ocean acidification does not affect the physiology of the tropical coral Acropora digitifera during a 5-week experiment

Takahashi, Ami; Kurihara, Haruko

doi:10.1007/s00338-012-0979-8

Cited by 58 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…For respiration, despite the thermodynamic prediction that calcification will be energetically more costly at high P CO2 (Erez et al, 2011;Pandolfi et al, 2011), and therefore will cause respiration to increase (McCulloch et al, 2012), most tests of this hypothesis have found no effect (Reynaud et al, 2003;Schneider and Erez, 2006;Comeau et al, 2016), or a decline (Edmunds, 2012;Kaniewska et al, 2012), including for P. damicornis (normalized by biomass, but not area; Comeau et al, 2016). For photosynthesis, the effects of high P CO2 also are equivocal, with reports of increases (Reynaud et al, 2003), decreases (Anthony et al, 2008;Kaniewska et al, 2012) and no effect (Takahashi and Kurihara, 2013;Comeau et al, 2016), which together support a null outcome in a meta-analysis (Kroeker et al, 2013).…”

Section: Allometry In Colonial Coralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size-dependent physiological responses of the branching coralPocillopora verrucosato elevated temperature andPCO2

Edmunds

Burgess

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Body size has large effects on organism physiology, but these effects remain poorly understood in modular animals with complex morphologies. Using two trials of a ∼24 day experiment conducted in 2014 and 2015, we tested the hypothesis that colony size of the coral Pocillopora verrucosa affects the response of calcification, aerobic respiration and gross photosynthesis to temperature (∼26.5 and ∼29.7°C) and P CO2 (∼40 and ∼1000 µatm). Large corals calcified more than small corals, but at a slower size-specific rate; areanormalized calcification declined with size. Whole-colony and areanormalized calcification were unaffected by temperature, P CO2 , or the interaction between the two. Whole-colony respiration increased with colony size, but the slopes of these relationships differed between treatments. Area-normalized gross photosynthesis declined with colony size, but whole-colony photosynthesis was unaffected by P CO2 , and showed a weak response to temperature. When scaled up to predict the response of large corals, area-normalized metrics of physiological performance measured using small corals provide inaccurate estimates of the physiological performance of large colonies. Together, these results demonstrate the importance of colony size in modulating the response of branching corals to elevated temperature and high P CO2 .

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Section: Allometry In Colonial Coralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size-dependent physiological responses of the branching coralPocillopora verrucosato elevated temperature andPCO2

Edmunds

Burgess

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…This alone is an important discovery as it demonstrates that local examples of resistance of corals to aspects of OA [11,12] may have general application over a scale of thousands of kilometres. While it was beyond the scope of our study to identify the mechanistic basis of the resistance of these two corals to OA, there are three hypotheses with potential to explain this pattern.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, recent studies now indicate more nuanced responses to OA for select reef calcifiers [9], with a compilation of laboratory studies of corals suggesting that coral calcification will decline approximately 10-20% (rather than ceasing) for a doubling of present-day partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO 2 ) [10]. More subtle responses to OA have also been shown in recent studies reporting signs of resistance to OA for some reef calcifiers [11][12][13]. Field observations at underwater CO 2 vents in Papua New Guinea and sites with high seawater pCO 2 in Palau have also shown that some reef calcifiers can persist in naturally acidified conditions [14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Pacific-wide contrast highlights resistance of reef calcifiers to ocean acidification

et al. 2014

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Ocean acidification (OA) and its associated decline in calcium carbonate saturation states is one of the major threats that tropical coral reefs face this century. Previous studies of the effect of OA on coral reef calcifiers have described a wide variety of outcomes for studies using comparable partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO 2 ) ranges, suggesting that key questions remain unresolved. One unresolved hypothesis posits that heterogeneity in the response of reef calcifiers to high pCO 2 is a result of regional-scale variation in the responses to OA. To test this hypothesis, we incubated two coral taxa (Pocillopora damicornis and massive Porites) and two calcified algae (Porolithon onkodes and Halimeda macroloba) under 400, 700 and 1000 matm pCO 2 levels in experiments in Moorea (French Polynesia), Hawaii (USA) and Okinawa (Japan), where environmental conditions differ. Both corals and H. macroloba were insensitive to OA at all three locations, while the effects of OA on P. onkodes were locationspecific. In Moorea and Hawaii, calcification of P. onkodes was depressed by high pCO 2 , but for specimens in Okinawa, there was no effect of OA. Using a study of large geographical scale, we show that resistance to OA of some reef species is a constitutive character expressed across the Pacific.

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“…In order to better understand how ocean acidification affects coral calcification, Takahashi and Kurihara (2013) carried out a culturing experiment of Acropora digitifera under different levels of pCO 2 (344, 744, and 2143 latm), corresponding to seawater pH (total scale) of 8.09, 7.81, and 7.40, respectively. These workers showed that the decline of seawater pH had little effect on calcification rate, suggesting biological control of calcification rate.…”

Section: Communicated By Biology Editor Dr Simon Davymentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of Acropora digitifera to ocean acidification: constraints from δ11B, Sr, Mg, and Ba compositions of aragonitic skeletons cultured under variable seawater pH

et al. 2015

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The response of Acropora digitifera to ocean acidification is determined using geochemical proxy measurements of the skeletal composition of A. digitifera cultured under a range of pH levels. We show that the chemical composition (d 11 B, Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca, and Ba/Ca) of the coral skeletons can provide quantitative constraints on the effects of seawater pH on the pH in the calcification fluid (pH CF ) and the mechanisms controlling the incorporation of trace elements into coral aragonite. With the decline of seawater pH, the skeletal d 11 B value decreased, while the Sr/Ca ratio showed an increasing trend. The relationship between Mg/Ca and Ba/Ca versus seawater pH was not significant. Inter-colony variation of d 11 B was insignificant, although inter-colony variation was observed for Ba/Ca. The decreasing trend of pH CF calculated from d 11 B was from *8.5, 8.4, and 8.3 for seawater pH of *8.1, 7.8, and 7.4, respectively. Model calculations based on Sr/Ca and pH CF suggest that upregulation of pH CF occurs via exchange of H ? with Ca 2? with kinetic effects (Rayleigh fractionation), reducing Sr/Ca relative to inorganic deposition of aragonite from seawater. We show that it is possible to constrain the overall carbonate chemistry of the calcifying fluid with estimates of the carbonate saturation of the calcifying fluid (X CF ) being derived from skeletal Sr/Ca and pH CF (from d 11 B). These estimates suggest that the aragonite saturation state of the calcifying fluid X CF is elevated by a factor of 5-10 relative to ambient seawater under all treatment conditions.

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Ocean acidification does not affect the physiology of the tropical coral Acropora digitifera during a 5-week experiment

Cited by 58 publications

References 48 publications

Size-dependent physiological responses of the branching coralPocillopora verrucosato elevated temperature andPCO2

Size-dependent physiological responses of the branching coralPocillopora verrucosato elevated temperature andPCO2

Pacific-wide contrast highlights resistance of reef calcifiers to ocean acidification

Response of Acropora digitifera to ocean acidification: constraints from δ11B, Sr, Mg, and Ba compositions of aragonitic skeletons cultured under variable seawater pH

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