Coral weight from a study of year-long effects of high pCO2 on the community structure of a tropical fore reef assembled in outdoor flumes in Moorea, French Polynesia from 2017 to 2018

This coral calcification dataset includes the weight of the corals as used to report net changes in mass (Gnet). Flume physical and chemical conditions are provided as a supplemental file. These data are part of a study of year-long effects of high pCO2 on the community structure of a tropical fore reef assembled in outdoor flumes in Moorea, French Polynesia from 2017 to 2018.

These coral calcification data support publication (Edmunds et al., 2020; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsaa015) with the following abstract:

In this study, fore reef coral communities were exposed to high pCO2 for a year to explore the relationship between net accretion (Gnet) and community structure (planar area growth). Coral reef communities simulating the fore reef at 17-m depth on Mo’orea, French Polynesia, were assembled in three outdoor flumes (each 500 l) that were maintained at ambient (396 matm), 782 matm, and 1434 matm pCO2, supplied with seawater at 300 l h 1, and exposed to light simulating 17-m depth. The communities were constructed using corals from the fore reef, and the responses of massive Porites spp., Acropora spp., and Pocillopora verrucosa were assessed through monthly measurements of Gnet and planar area. High pCO2 depressed Gnet but did not affect colony area by taxon, although the areas of Acropora spp. and P. verrucosa summed to cause multivariate community structure to differ among treatments. These results suggest that skeletal plasticity modulates the effects of reduced Gnet at high pCO2 on planar growth, at least over a year. The low sensitivity of the planar growth of fore reef corals to the effects of ocean acidification.

本珊瑚钙化数据集收录了用于表征珊瑚质量净变化（Gnet）的珊瑚重量数据，流水槽（flume）的物理与化学参数已作为补充文件提供。上述数据为2017至2018年在法属波利尼西亚茉莉亚岛（Moorea）开展的一项为期一年的研究的组成部分，该研究旨在探究高二氧化碳分压（pCO2）对户外流水槽中构建的热带前礁群落结构的影响。

本珊瑚钙化数据集支撑了以下论文的发表（Edmunds等，2020；doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsaa015），该论文摘要如下：
本研究将前礁珊瑚群落暴露于高二氧化碳分压（pCO2）环境中长达一年，以探究净钙化量（Gnet）与群落结构（平面面积生长速率）之间的关联。研究人员在法属波利尼西亚茉莉亚岛17米水深处构建了模拟前礁环境的珊瑚礁群落，并将其安置于3个户外流水槽（单槽容积500升）中，分别维持在环境级（396微大气压，matm）、782微大气压与1434微大气压的二氧化碳分压条件下；流水槽以300升/小时的速率通入海水，并配备模拟17米水深的光照环境。该群落所用珊瑚均采自该前礁区域，研究人员通过每月测量Gnet与平面面积，评估了块状滨珊瑚类群（Porites spp.）、鹿角珊瑚属（Acropora spp.）以及疣状杯形珊瑚（Pocillopora verrucosa）的响应特征。高二氧化碳分压会抑制Gnet，但不会按类群影响珊瑚群体的平面面积；不过鹿角珊瑚属与疣状杯形珊瑚的平面面积之和，使得不同处理组间的多元群落结构出现显著差异。上述研究结果表明，至少在为期一年的实验周期内，骨骼可塑性可调节高二氧化碳分压下Gnet降低对珊瑚平面生长的影响；前礁珊瑚的平面生长对海洋酸化效应具有较低的敏感性。