Seagrass ecosystem response to long-term high CO2 in a Mediterranean volcanic vent

DOI

We examined the long-term effect of naturally acidified water on a Cymodocea nodosa meadow growing at a shallow volcanic CO2 vent in Vulcano Island (Italy). Seagrass and adjacent unvegetated habitats growing at a low pH station (pH = 7.65 ± 0.02) were compared with corresponding habitats at a control station (pH = 8.01 ± 0.01). Density and biomass showed a clear decreasing trend at the low pH station and the below- to above-ground biomass ratio was more than 10 times lower compared to the control. C content and delta 13C of leaves and epiphytes were significantly lower at the low pH station. Photosynthetic activity of C. nodosa was stimulated by low pH as seen by the significant increase in Chla content of leaves, maximum electron transport rate and compensation irradiance. Seagrass community metabolism was intense at the low pH station, with significantly higher net community production, respiration and gross primary production than the control community, whereas metabolism of the unvegetated community did not differ between stations. Productivity was promoted by the low pH, but this was not translated into biomass, probably due to nutrient limitation, grazing or poor environmental conditions. The results indicate that seagrass response in naturally acidified conditions is dependable upon species and geochemical characteristics of the site and highlight the need for a better understanding of complex interactions in these environments.

In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Lavigne et al, 2014) 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 is 2014-07-07.

Supplement to: Apostolaki, Eugenia T; Vizzini, Salvatrice; Hendriks, Iris; Olsen, Ylva (2014): Seagrass ecosystem response to long-term high CO2 in a Mediterranean volcanic vent. Marine Environmental Research, 99, 9-15

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.833844
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2014.05.008
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.833844
Provenance
Creator Apostolaki, Eugenia T ORCID logo; Vizzini, Salvatrice; Hendriks, Iris ORCID logo; Olsen, Ylva ORCID logo
Publisher PANGAEA
Contributor Yang, Yan
Publication Year 2014
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 300 data points
Discipline Earth System Research