Decreased light availability can amplify negative impacts of ocean acidification on calcifying coral reef organisms

Coral reef organisms are increasingly and simultaneously affected by global and local stressors such as ocean acidification (OA) and reduced light availability. However, knowledge of the interplay between OA and light availability is scarce. We exposed 2 calcifying coral reef species (the scleractinian coral Acropora millepora and the green alga Halimeda opuntia) to combinations of ambient and increased pCO2 (427 and 1073 µatm, respectively), and 2 light intensities (35 and 150 µmol photons/m**2/s) for 16 d. We evaluated the individual and combined effects of these 2 stressors on weight increase, calcification rates, O2 fluxes and chlorophyll a content for the species investigated. Weight increase of A. millepora was significantly reduced by OA (48%) and low light intensity (96%) compared to controls. While OA did not affect coral calcification in the light, it decreased calcification in the dark by 155%, leading to dissolution of the skeleton. H. opuntia weight increase was not affected by OA, but decreased (40%) at low light. OA did not affect algae calcification in the light, but decreased calcification in the dark by 164%, leading to dissolution. Low light significantly reduced gross photosynthesis (56 and 57%), net photosynthesis (62 and 60%) and respiration (43 and 48%) of A. millepora and H. opuntia, respectively. In contrast to A. millepora, H. opuntia significantly increased chlorophyll content by 15% over the course of the experiment. No interactive effects of OA and low light intensity were found on any response variable for either organism. However, A. millepora exhibited additive effects of OA and low light, while H. opuntia was only affected by low light. Thus, this study suggests that negative effects of low light and OA are additive on corals, which may have implications for management of river discharge into coastal coral reefs.

Data and Resources

This dataset has no data

Cite this as

Vogel, Nikolas, Meyer, Friedrich Wilhelm, Wild, Christian, Uthicke, Sven (2015). Dataset: Decreased light availability can amplify negative impacts of ocean acidification on calcifying coral reef organisms. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.846877

DOI retrieved: 2015

Additional Info

Field Value
Imported on November 29, 2024
Last update November 30, 2024
License CC-BY-3.0
Source https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.846877
Author Vogel, Nikolas
Given Name Nikolas
Family Name Vogel
More Authors
Meyer, Friedrich Wilhelm
Wild, Christian
Uthicke, Sven
Source Creation 2015
Publication Year 2015
Resource Type text/tab-separated-values - filename: Vogel_2015
Subject Areas
Name: BiologicalClassification

Name: Biosphere

Name: Chemistry

Name: Ecology

Name: Oceans

Related Identifiers
Title: Decreased light availability can amplify negative impacts of ocean acidification on calcifying coral reef organisms
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11088
Type: DOI
Relation: IsSupplementTo
Year: 2015
Source: Marine Ecology Progress Series
Authors: Vogel Nikolas , Meyer Friedrich Wilhelm , Wild Christian , Uthicke Sven .

Title: seacarb: seawater carbonate chemistry with R. R package version 3.0.6
Identifier: https://cran.r-project.org/package=seacarb
Type: DOI
Relation: References
Year: 2015
Authors: Gattuso Jean-Pierre , Epitalon Jean-Marie , Lavigne Héloïse .