Dataset: Respiration rates, photosynthetic efficiency, and mortality of brooded coral larval experiments, March 2011 and 2012, Taiwan (Cumbo, 2013) (MCR LTER project, Climate_Coral_Larvae project)

To evaluate the effects of temperature and pCO2 on coral larvae, brooded larvae of Pocillopora damicornis from Nanwan Bay, Taiwan (21°56.179' N, 120°44.85' E), were exposed to ambient (419-470 µatm) and high (604-742 µatm) pCO2 at ~25 and ~29 °C in two experiments conducted in March 2010 and March 2012. Larvae were sampled from four consecutive lunar days (LD) synchronized with spawning following the new moon, incubated in treatments for 24 h, and measured for respiration, maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (F v/F m), and mortality.

The most striking outcome was a strong effect of time (i.e., LD) on larvae performance: respiration was affected by an LD × temperature interaction in 2010 and 2012, as well as an LD × pCO2 × temperature interaction in 2012; F v/F m was affected by LD in 2010 (but not 2012); and mortality was affected by an LD × pCO2 interaction in 2010, and an LD × temperature interaction in 2012. There were no main effects of pCO2 in 2010, but in 2012, high pCO2 depressed metabolic rate and reduced mortality. Therefore, differences in larval performance depended on day of release and resulted in varying susceptibility to future predicted environmental conditions. These results underscore the importance of considering larval brood variation across days when designing experiments. Subtle differences in experimental outcomes between years suggest that transgenerational plasticity in combination with unique histories of exposure to physical conditions can modulate the response of brooded coral larvae to climate change and ocean acidification.

These data include dark respiration rates, maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (F v/F m), and mortality from the experimental tanks, March 2011 and 2012.

Related datasets:

brooded coral larvae 2 - carbonate chemistry
brooded coral larvae 2 - larval release March 2003-2008

These data are published in Vivian R Cumbo, Peter J Edmunds, Christopher B Wall, Tung-Yung Fan. (2013) Brooded coral larvae differ in their response to high temperature and elevated pCO2 depending on the day of release. Marine Biology. See Figures 1 and 2.

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Data also available from PANGAEA: DOI 10.1007/s00227-013-2280-y