Seawater carbonate chemistry and calcium carbonate of Padina spp., photosynthesis of Padina pavonica in nature CO2 gradients experiment

DOI

Predicting the impacts of ocean acidification on coastal ecosystems requires an understanding of the effects on macroalgae and their grazers, as these underpin the ecology of rocky shores. Whilst calcified coralline algae (Rhodophyta) appear to be especially vulnerable to ocean acidification, there is a lack of information concerning calcified brown algae (Phaeophyta), which are not obligate calcifiers but are still important producers of calcium carbonate and organic matter in shallow coastal waters. Here, we compare ecological shifts in subtidal rocky shore systems along CO2 gradients created by volcanic seeps in the Mediterranean and Papua New Guinea, focussing on abundant macroalgae and grazing sea urchins. In both the temperate and tropical systems the abundances of grazing sea urchins declined dramatically along CO2 gradients. Temperate and tropical species of the calcifying macroalgal genus Padina (Dictyoaceae, Phaeophyta) showed reductions in CaCO3 content with CO2 enrichment. In contrast to other studies of calcified macroalgae, however, we observed an increase in the abundance of Padina spp. in acidified conditions. Reduced sea urchin grazing pressure and significant increases in photosynthetic rates may explain the unexpected success of decalcified Padina spp. at elevated levels of CO2. This is the first study to provide a comparison of ecological changes along CO2 gradients between temperate and tropical rocky shores. The similarities we found in the responses of Padina spp. and sea urchin abundance at several vent systems increases confidence in predictions of the ecological impacts of ocean acidification over a large geographical range.

In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Lavigne and Gattuso, 2011) was used to compute a complete and consistent set of carbonate system variables, as described by Nisumaa et al. (2010). In this dataset the original values were archived in addition with the recalculated parameters (see related PI). The date of carbonate chemistry calculation by seacarb is 2013-11-20.

Supplement to: Johnson, Vivienne R; Russell, Bayden D; Fabricius, Katharina Elisabeth; Brownlee, Colin; Hall-Spencer, Jason M (2012): Temperate and tropical brown macroalgae thrive, despite decalcification, along natural CO2 gradients. Global Change Biology, 18(9), 2792-2803

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.823111
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02716.x
Related Identifier https://cran.r-project.org/package=seacarb
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.823111
Provenance
Creator Johnson, Vivienne R; Russell, Bayden D ORCID logo; Fabricius, Katharina Elisabeth ORCID logo; Brownlee, Colin; Hall-Spencer, Jason M ORCID logo
Publisher PANGAEA
Contributor Yang, Yan
Publication Year 2012
Funding Reference Seventh Framework Programme https://doi.org/10.13039/100011102 Crossref Funder ID 265103 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/265103 Mediterranean Sea Acidification in a Changing Climate
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Supplementary Dataset; Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 28736 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (14.950W, -9.750S, 150.833E, 38.417N)
Temporal Coverage Begin 2010-09-01T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2011-05-31T00:00:00Z