We conducted a long-term (6 months) multiple stressor aquarium experiment with the cold-water coral Desmophyllum pertusum (syn. Lophelia pertusa) under future environmental conditions. The experiment with dead coral skeletons consisted of five different treatments to investigate the combined effect of ocean acidification, warming and deoxygenation on their skeletal dissolution: control (9 °C, pH 8.1, 100 % oxygen), multiple stressor (12 °C, pH 7.7, 90 % oxygen) and three different pCO2 levels (750, 1000 and 1250 ppm). The coral skeletons were weighed after 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 months using the buoyant weighing technique. Every treatment consisted of three replicate tanks with two dead coral skeletons.

Dissolution rates measured during the course of a long-term multiple stressor aquarium experiment with the cold-water coral Desmophyllum pertusum