Interactive effects of climate change and eutrophication on the dinoflagellate bearing benthic foraminifera Marginopora vertebralis

This study investigated the effects of increased temperature and nutrients on dinoflagellate-bearing foraminifera Marginopora vertebralis. The experiments manipulating temperature, and temperature combined with increased nitrate concentration, demonstrate that growth rates and mortality in M. vertebralis were significantly affected by temperature increase and nitrate addition. Specimens were collected from Shaw Island in the Whitsunday Region of the Great Barrier Reef at depths of 3 - 5 meters. Experiments tested a range of parameters including photosynthesis and respiration, composition of photosynthetic and photoprotective pigments, growth and mortality; measuring the response of the host-symbiont system.This study included:-a static incubator temperature range-finding experiment ran for 37 days. Five individual incubators were temperature controlled at 28, 30, 31, 32, and 34°C. Each incubator held 4 containers holding 16 specimens of M. vertebralis. -a flow-through experiment where three temperature levels of 26, 29 and 31°C and three nitrate concentrations were studied over a 30 day period. Three replicas of each variation were used, resulting in 27 aquaria each holding 12 specimens of M. vertebralis.