Coral growth along a natural gradient of seawater temperature, pH, and oxygen in a nearshore seagrass bed on Dongsha Atoll, Taiwan.

Autor:	Pezner AK; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States of America., Courtney TA; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States of America.; Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico., Chou WC; Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan.; Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan., Chu HC; Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan., Frable BW; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States of America., Kekuewa SAH; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States of America., Soong K; Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan., Wei Y; Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan., Andersson AJ; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States of America.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	PloS one [PLoS One] 2024 Oct 23; Vol. 19 (10), pp. e0312263. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 23 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0312263
Abstrakt:	Coral reefs are facing threats from a variety of global change stressors, including ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation. It has been hypothesized that growing corals near primary producers such as macroalgae or seagrass may help to ameliorate acidification and deoxygenation stress, however few studies have explored this effect in situ. Here, we investigated differences in coral growth rates across a natural gradient in seawater temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO) variability in a nearshore seagrass bed on Dongsha Atoll, Taiwan, South China Sea. We observed strong spatial gradients in temperature (5°C), pH (0.29 pH units), and DO (129 μmol O2 kg-1) across the 1-kilometer wide seagrass bed. Similarly, diel variability recorded by an autonomous sensor in the shallow seagrass measured diel ranges in temperature, pH, and DO of up to 2.6°C, 0.55, and 204 μmol O2 kg-1, respectively. Skeletal cores collected from 15 massive Porites corals growing in the seagrass bed at 4 sites revealed no significant differences in coral calcification rates between sites along the gradients. However, significant differences in skeletal extension rate and density suggest that the dynamic temperature, pH, and/or DO variability may have influenced these properties. The lack of differences in coral growth between sites may be because favorable calcification conditions during the day (high temperature, pH, and DO) were proportionally balanced by unfavorable conditions during the night (low temperature, pH, and DO). Alternatively, other factors were simply more important in controlling coral calcification and/or corals were acclimated to the prevailing conditions at each site. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. (Copyright: © 2024 Pezner et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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