Seawater carbonate chemistry and physiological data of a multi-driver aquarium experiment with different life stages of the cold-water coral Caryophyllia huinayensis

We conducted a six-month aquarium experiment with three life stages of Caryophyllia huinayensis to study their physiological response (survival, somatic growth, calcification and respiration) to the interactive effects of aragonite saturation (0.8 and 2.5), temperature (11 and 15 °C) and food availability (8 and 87 μg C/L). The fully crossed factorial design of this experiment with the three parameters resulted in eight treatments. We measured the calcification and respiration rates as well as the health status of the corals after one, three and six months. The survival rate was deteremined every month, the change in tissue covered surface area was measured between the beginning and end of the experiment and prey capture rates were determined after five months. During the whole experiment, the temperature was measured every 15 minutes with TidbiT temperature loggers and additional water parameters (temperature, salinity, pH and oxygen concentration) were measured daily. We took waters samples (total alkalinity and nutrients) once a week and used TA and pH (total scale) to calculate the carbonate chemistry using the programme CO2sys.