Aquarium monitoring of an ex-situ experiment involving the cold-water octocoral Dentomuricea aff. meteor

We report the results of an aquaria-based experiment testing the effects of suspended particles generated during potential mining activities, on a common habitat-building coral species in the Azores, Dentomuricea aff. meteor. Coral fragments were maintained in 10-L aquaria and exposed to three experimental treatments for a period of four weeks at the DeepSeaLab aquaria facilities (Okeanos-University of the Azores): (1) control conditions (no added sediments); (2) suspended polymetallic sulphide (PMS) particles; (3) suspended quartz particles. Seawater physical-chemical parameters were measured daily in each aquarium. Seawater salinity was measured with a S30 SevenEasy™ conductivity meter, pH and temperature with a glass electrode (Crison pH 25+), and oxygen with a Fibox4 (PreSens) with a Oxygen Dipping Probe DP-PSt3. Seawater samples for inorganic nutrient analyses were collected on times 0 (immediately before the start of the experiment), and once a week on days 6, 13, 20 and 27 of the experiment and determined using a colorimetric autoanalyzer Sanplus with segmented flow.