Calcification of coral from the start and end of experiments under elevated concentrations of temperature and carbon dioxide
Project
Programs
| Contributors | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Carpenter, Robert | California State University Northridge (CSUN) | Principal Investigator |
| Edmunds, Peter J. | California State University Northridge (CSUN) | Co-Principal Investigator |
| Doo, Steve | California State University Northridge (CSUN) | Contact |
| Rauch, Shannon | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO) | BCO-DMO Data Manager |
Abstract
See Doo et al. (2018) for a detailed overview of the methodology.
Collection and experimental setup methods extracted from Doo et al. (2018):
Colony collection: In January 2017, 48 colonies of Pocillopora verrucosa (Ellis and Solander 1786) were collected randomly on scuba from 5 m depth on the north shore of Mo’orea, French Polynesia (17° 28' 33"S, 149° 49' 20"W). Following 5 d of acclimation, 24 of the corals were selected randomly for removal of all trapeziid crabs and alpheid shrimps ("minus-ectosymbiont") by probing with a wooden stick (3 mm diameter). Crabs and shrimp were left in the other 24 corals ("plus-ectosymbiont"), which were subjected to a procedural control in which they were probed with a wooden stick.
Incubation setup: Twelve mesocosm tanks (150 L volume with sand-filtered seawater pumped from 14 m depth in Cooks’ Bay and supplied to the tanks at ~200 mL min−1) were used in this experiment, with four colonies per tank in a split-plot design contrasting plus-ectosymbiont (n = 2 colonies/tank) and minus-ectosymbiont (n = 2 colonies/tank) corals.
Daily measures of salinity, pH, and total alkalinity (TA):
Temperature was recorded with a thermometer (± 0.05 degrees C; ThermoFisher Traceable) and salinity was measured with a bench-top conductivity meter (± 0.1 psu, YSI 3100). TA and pH were measured within one hour of sample collection. Seawater collected for TA was filtered (0.45 um; Chanson and Millero, 2007) and analyzed using potentiometric titrations with 0.1-N HCl using an automatic titrator (Mettler Toledo T50) (Dickson et al., 2007). Seawater pH was measured with spectrophotometric methods (Nemzer and Dickson, 2005).
Buoyant weight: was measured at start and end of experiment and difference between the two values was used to calculate an increase in dry skeletal weight (i.e., calcification) using the density of aragonite, and then normalized to the surface area of each coral (Davies 1989).
Buoyant weight was measured at start and end of experiment and difference between the two values was used to calculate an increase in dry skeletal weight (i.e., calcification) using the density of aragonite, and then normalized to the surface area of each coral (Davies 1989). All statistical analyses were performed with the R statistical software. pH data were calculated using spectrophotometric methods outlined by Dickson et al. (2007).
BCO-DMO Processing:
- replaced "#" with "number" in paratmer names.
| File |
|---|
coral_buoyant_weight.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 1.29 KB) MD5:8388b66769498e51bfdad40c77deede0 Primary data file for dataset ID 748383 |
| Parameter | Description | Units |
| Coral_number | Unique coral colony identification number | unitless |
| pH | pH treatment | unitless |
| Temperature | Temperature treatment | unitless |
| Crab | Crab treatment: with (Yes) or without (No) | unitless |
| Growth | Change in weight (g) obtained by buoyant weighing pre and post experiment, and later converted to mass of CaCO3 and normalized to surface area of coral tissue (Stimson and Kinzie 1991). | grams |
| Dataset-specific Instrument Name | Mettler PB153-S balance |
| Generic Instrument Name | scale |
| Generic Instrument Description | An instrument used to measure weight or mass. |
Moorea Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research site (MCR LTER)
From http://www.lternet.edu/sites/mcr/ and http://mcr.lternet.edu/:
The Moorea Coral Reef LTER site encompasses the coral reef complex that surrounds the island of Moorea, French Polynesia (17°30'S, 149°50'W). Moorea is a small, triangular volcanic island 20 km west of Tahiti in the Society Islands of French Polynesia. An offshore barrier reef forms a system of shallow (mean depth ~ 5-7 m), narrow (~0.8-1.5 km wide) lagoons around the 60 km perimeter of Moorea. All major coral reef types (e.g., fringing reef, lagoon patch reefs, back reef, barrier reef and fore reef) are present and accessible by small boat.
The MCR LTER was established in 2004 by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and is a partnership between the University of California Santa Barbara and California State University, Northridge. MCR researchers include marine scientists from the UC Santa Barbara, CSU Northridge, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, CSU San Marcos, Duke University and the University of Hawaii. Field operations are conducted from the UC Berkeley Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station on the island of Moorea, French Polynesia.
MCR LTER Data: The Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER data are managed by and available directly from the MCR project data site URL shown above. The datasets listed below were collected at or near the MCR LTER sampling locations, and funded by NSF OCE as ancillary projects related to the MCR LTER core research themes.
This project is supported by continuing grants with slight name variations:
- LTER: Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem
- LTER: MCR II - Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem
- LTER: MCR IIB: Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem
- LTER: MCR III: Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem
- LTER: MCR IV: Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem
Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: Scale Dependence and Adaptive Capacity (OA coral adaptation)
Extracted from the NSF award abstract:
This project focuses on the most serious threat to marine ecosystems, Ocean Acidification (OA), and addresses the problem in the most diverse and beautiful ecosystem on the planet, coral reefs. The research utilizes Moorea, French Polynesia as a model system, and builds from the NSF investment in the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research Site (LTER) to exploit physical and biological monitoring of coral reefs as a context for a program of studies focused on the ways in which OA will affect corals, calcified algae, and coral reef ecosystems. The project builds on a four-year NSF award with research in five new directions: (1) experiments of year-long duration, (2) studies of coral reefs to 20-m depth, (3) experiments in which carbon dioxide will be administered to plots of coral reef underwater, (4) measurements of the capacity of coral reef organisms to change through evolutionary and induced responses to improve their resistance to OA, and (5) application of emerging theories to couple studies of individual organisms to studies of whole coral reefs. Broader impacts will accrue through a better understanding of the ways in which OA will affect coral reefs that are the poster child for demonstrating climate change effects in the marine environment, and which provide income, food, and coastal protection to millions of people living in coastal areas, including in the United States.
This project focuses on the effects of Ocean Acidification on tropical coral reefs and builds on a program of research results from an existing 4-year award, and closely interfaces with the technical, hardware, and information infrastructure provided through the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER. The MCR-LTER, provides an unparalleled opportunity to partner with a study of OA effects on a coral reef with a location that arguably is better instrumented and studied in more ecological detail than any other coral reef in the world. Therefore, the results can be both contextualized by a high degree of ecological and physical relevance, and readily integrated into emerging theory seeking to predict the structure and function of coral reefs in warmer and more acidic future oceans. The existing award has involved a program of study in Moorea that has focused mostly on short-term organismic and ecological responses of corals and calcified algae, experiments conducted in mesocosms and flumes, and measurements of reef-scale calcification. This new award involves three new technical advances: for the first time, experiments will be conducted of year-long duration in replicate outdoor flumes; CO2 treatments will be administered to fully intact reef ecosystems in situ using replicated underwater flumes; and replicated common garden cultivation techniques will be used to explore within-species genetic variation in the response to OA conditions. Together, these tools will be used to support research on corals and calcified algae in three thematic areas: (1) tests for long-term (1 year) effects of OA on growth, performance, and fitness, (2) tests for depth-dependent effects of OA on reef communities at 20-m depth where light regimes are attenuated compared to shallow water, and (3) tests for beneficial responses to OA through intrinsic, within-species genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity. Some of the key experiments in these thematic areas will be designed to exploit integral projection models (IPMs) to couple organism with community responses, and to support the use of the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) to address scale-dependence of OA effects on coral reef organisms and the function of the communities they build.
The following publications and data resulted from this project:
Comeau S, Carpenter RC, Lantz CA, Edmunds PJ. (2016) Parameterization of the response of calcification to temperature and pCO2 in the coral Acropora pulchra and the alga Lithophyllum kotschyanum. Coral Reefs 2016. DOI 10.1007/s00338-016-1425-0.
calcification rates (2014)
calcification rates (2010)
Comeau, S., Carpenter, R.C., Edmunds, P.J. (2016) Effects of pCO2 on photosynthesis and respiration of tropical scleractinian corals and calcified algae. ICES Journal of Marine Science doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsv267.
respiration and photosynthesis I
respiration and photosynthesis II
Evensen, N.R. & Edmunds P. J. (2016) Interactive effects of ocean acidification and neighboring corals on the growth of Pocillopora verrucosa. Marine Biology, 163:148. doi: 10.1007/s00227-016-2921-z
coral growth
seawater chemistry
coral colony interactions
Long Term Ecological Research network (LTER)
adapted from http://www.lternet.edu/
The National Science Foundation established the LTER program in 1980 to support research on long-term ecological phenomena in the United States. The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network is a collaborative effort involving more than 1800 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. The LTER Network promotes synthesis and comparative research across sites and ecosystems and among other related national and international research programs. The LTER research sites represent diverse ecosystems with emphasis on different research themes, and cross-site communication, network publications, and research-planning activities are coordinated through the LTER Network Office.
2017 LTER research site map obtained from https://lternet.edu/site/lter-network/
Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability NSF-Wide Investment (SEES): Ocean Acidification (formerly CRI-OA) (SEES-OA)
NSF Climate Research Investment (CRI) activities that were initiated in 2010 are now included under Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability NSF-Wide Investment (SEES). SEES is a portfolio of activities that highlights NSF's unique role in helping society address the challenge(s) of achieving sustainability. Detailed information about the SEES program is available from NSF (https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504707).
In recognition of the need for basic research concerning the nature, extent and impact of ocean acidification on oceanic environments in the past, present and future, the goal of the SEES: OA program is to understand (a) the chemistry and physical chemistry of ocean acidification; (b) how ocean acidification interacts with processes at the organismal level; and (c) how the earth system history informs our understanding of the effects of ocean acidification on the present day and future ocean.
Solicitations issued under this program:
NSF 10-530, FY 2010-FY2011
NSF 12-500, FY 2012
NSF 12-600, FY 2013
NSF 13-586, FY 2014
NSF 13-586 was the final solicitation that will be released for this program.
PI Meetings:
1st U.S. Ocean Acidification PI Meeting(March 22-24, 2011, Woods Hole, MA)
2nd U.S. Ocean Acidification PI Meeting(Sept. 18-20, 2013, Washington, DC)
3rd U.S. Ocean Acidification PI Meeting (June 9-11, 2015, Woods Hole, MA – Tentative)
NSF media releases for the Ocean Acidification Program:
Press Release 10-186 NSF Awards Grants to Study Effects of Ocean Acidification
Discovery Blue Mussels "Hang On" Along Rocky Shores: For How Long?
Press Release 13-102 World Oceans Month Brings Mixed News for Oysters
| Funding Source | Award |
|---|---|
| NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) | |
| NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) | |
| NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) |
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