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Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen

Coral reefs are essential to many nations, and are currently in global decline. Although climate models predict decreases in seawater pH (∼0.3 units) and oxygen saturation (∼5 percentage points), these are exceeded by the current daily pH and oxygen fluctuations on many reefs (pH 7.8–8.7 and 27–241%...

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Autores principales: Wijgerde, Tim, Silva, Catarina I. F., Scherders, Vera, van Bleijswijk, Judith, Osinga, Ronald
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Company of Biologists 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4058083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24857847
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.20147922
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author Wijgerde, Tim
Silva, Catarina I. F.
Scherders, Vera
van Bleijswijk, Judith
Osinga, Ronald
author_facet Wijgerde, Tim
Silva, Catarina I. F.
Scherders, Vera
van Bleijswijk, Judith
Osinga, Ronald
author_sort Wijgerde, Tim
collection PubMed
description Coral reefs are essential to many nations, and are currently in global decline. Although climate models predict decreases in seawater pH (∼0.3 units) and oxygen saturation (∼5 percentage points), these are exceeded by the current daily pH and oxygen fluctuations on many reefs (pH 7.8–8.7 and 27–241% O(2) saturation). We investigated the effect of oxygen and pH fluctuations on coral calcification in the laboratory using the model species Acropora millepora. Light calcification rates were greatly enhanced (+178%) by increased seawater pH, but only at normoxia; hyperoxia completely negated this positive effect. Dark calcification rates were significantly inhibited (51–75%) at hypoxia, whereas pH had no effect. Our preliminary results suggest that within the current oxygen and pH range, oxygen has substantial control over coral growth, whereas the role of pH is limited. This has implications for reef formation in this era of rapid climate change, which is accompanied by a decrease in seawater oxygen saturation owing to higher water temperatures and coastal eutrophication.
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spelling pubmed-40580832014-07-15 Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen Wijgerde, Tim Silva, Catarina I. F. Scherders, Vera van Bleijswijk, Judith Osinga, Ronald Biol Open Research Article Coral reefs are essential to many nations, and are currently in global decline. Although climate models predict decreases in seawater pH (∼0.3 units) and oxygen saturation (∼5 percentage points), these are exceeded by the current daily pH and oxygen fluctuations on many reefs (pH 7.8–8.7 and 27–241% O(2) saturation). We investigated the effect of oxygen and pH fluctuations on coral calcification in the laboratory using the model species Acropora millepora. Light calcification rates were greatly enhanced (+178%) by increased seawater pH, but only at normoxia; hyperoxia completely negated this positive effect. Dark calcification rates were significantly inhibited (51–75%) at hypoxia, whereas pH had no effect. Our preliminary results suggest that within the current oxygen and pH range, oxygen has substantial control over coral growth, whereas the role of pH is limited. This has implications for reef formation in this era of rapid climate change, which is accompanied by a decrease in seawater oxygen saturation owing to higher water temperatures and coastal eutrophication. The Company of Biologists 2014-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4058083/ /pubmed/24857847 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.20147922 Text en © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wijgerde, Tim
Silva, Catarina I. F.
Scherders, Vera
van Bleijswijk, Judith
Osinga, Ronald
Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen
title Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen
title_full Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen
title_fullStr Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen
title_full_unstemmed Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen
title_short Coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and pH dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen
title_sort coral calcification under daily oxygen saturation and ph dynamics reveals the important role of oxygen
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4058083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24857847
http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.20147922
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