Dataset Information

Common Caribbean corals exhibit highly variable responses to future acidification and warming.

ABSTRACT: We conducted a 93-day experiment investigating the independent and combined effects of acidification (280-3300 µatm pCO2) and warming (28°C and 31°C) on calcification and linear extension rates of four key Caribbean coral species ( Siderastrea siderea, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Porites astreoides, Undaria tenuifolia) from inshore and offshore reefs on the Belize Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. All species exhibited nonlinear declines in calcification rate with increasing pCO2. Warming only reduced calcification in Ps. strigosa. Of the species tested, only S. siderea maintained positive calcification in the aragonite-undersaturated treatment . Temperature and pCO2 had no effect on the linear extension of S. siderea and Po. astreoides, and natal reef environment did not impact any parameter examined. Results suggest that S. siderea is the most resilient of these corals to warming and acidification owing to its ability to maintain positive calcification in all treatments, Ps. strigosa and U. tenuifolia are the least resilient, and Po. astreoides falls in the middle. These results highlight the diversity of calcification responses of Caribbean corals to projected global change.

SUBMITTER: Bove CB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6501672 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Common Caribbean corals exhibit highly variable responses to future acidification and warming.

Bove Colleen B CB Ries Justin B JB Davies Sarah W SW Westfield Isaac T IT Umbanhowar James J Castillo Karl D KD

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20190401 1900

We conducted a 93-day experiment investigating the independent and combined effects of acidification (280-3300 µatm pCO<sub>2</sub>) and warming (28°C and 31°C) on calcification and linear extension rates of four key Caribbean coral species ( Siderastrea siderea, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Porites astreoides, Undaria tenuifolia) from inshore and offshore reefs on the Belize Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. All species exhibited nonlinear declines in calcification rate with increasing pCO<sub>2</s ...[more]

PMID: 30940056

Similar Datasets

Project description:Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations are placing spatially divergent stresses on the world's tropical coral reefs through increasing ocean surface temperatures and ocean acidification. We show how these two stressors combine to alter the global habitat suitability for shallow coral reef ecosystems, using statistical Bioclimatic Envelope Models rather than basing projections on any a priori assumptions of physiological tolerances or fixed thresholds. We apply two different modeling approaches (Maximum Entropy and Boosted Regression Trees) with two levels of complexity (one a simplified and reduced environmental variable version of the other). Our models project a marked temperature-driven decline in habitat suitability for many of the most significant and bio-diverse tropical coral regions, particularly in the central Indo-Pacific. This is accompanied by a temperature-driven poleward range expansion of favorable conditions accelerating up to 40-70 km per decade by 2070. We find that ocean acidification is less influential for determining future habitat suitability than warming, and its deleterious effects are centered evenly in both hemispheres between 5° and 20° latitude. Contrary to expectations, the combined impact of ocean surface temperature rise and acidification leads to little, if any, degradation in future habitat suitability across much of the Atlantic and areas currently considered 'marginal' for tropical corals, such as the eastern Equatorial Pacific. These results are consistent with fossil evidence of range expansions during past warm periods. In addition, the simplified models are particularly sensitive to short-term temperature variations and their projections correlate well with reported locations of bleaching events. Our approach offers new insights into the relative impact of two global environmental pressures associated with rising atmospheric CO2 on potential future habitats, but greater understanding of past and current controls on coral reef ecosystems is essential to their conservation and management under a changing climate.

Project description:Ocean acidification (OA) and warming seas are significant concerns for coastal systems and species. The Atlantic longfin squid, Doryteuthis pealeii, a core component of the Northwest Atlantic trophic web, has demonstrated impacts, such as reduced growth and delayed development, under high chronic exposure to acidification (2200 ppm), but the combined effects of OA and warming have not been explored in this species. In this study, D. pealeii egg capsules were reared under a combination of several acidification levels (400, 2200, and 3500 ppm) and temperatures (20 and 27°C). Hatchlings were measured for a range of metrics [dorsal mantle length (DML), yolk sac volume (YV), malformation, and hatching success] in three trials over the 2016 breeding season (May - October). Although notable resistance to stressors was seen, highlighting variability within and between clutches, reduced DML and malformation of the embryos occurred at the highest OA exposure. Surprisingly, increased temperatures did not appear to exacerbate OA impacts, although responses were variable. Time to hatching, which increased with acidification, decreased much more drastically under warming and, further, decreased or removed delays caused by acidification. Hatching success, while variable by clutch, showed consistent patterns of greater late stage loss of embryos under acidification and greater early stage loss under warming, highlighting the potential difference in timing between these stressors for this system, i.e., that acidification stress builds up and causes impacts over time within the egg capsule as the embryos grow and respire. High OA-exposed hatchlings from the warmer conditions often showed reduced impacts compared to those reared in ambient temperatures. This may be due to the increased developmental rate and subsequently reduced OA exposure time of embryos in the higher temperature treatment. These results indicate a substantive potential plasticity to multiple stressors during the embryonic development of this species of squid, but do not predict how this species would fare under these future ocean scenarios.

Dataset Information

Common Caribbean corals exhibit highly variable responses to future acidification and warming.

Publications

Common Caribbean corals exhibit highly variable responses to future acidification and warming.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets