Dissolution rates from a long-term multiple stressor aquarium experiment with the cold-water coral Desmophyllum pertusum

We conducted a long-term (6 months) multiple driver aquarium experiment under future environmental conditions at St Abbs Marine Station (UK) with the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa (syn. Desmophyllum pertusum) sampled from Tisler Reef (Skagerrak). The experiment with dead coral skeletons consisted of five different treatments to investigate the combined effect of ocean acidification, warming and deoxygenation on their skeletal dissolution: control (9 °C, pH 8.1, 100 % oxygen), multiple stressor (12 °C, pH 7.7, 90 % oxygen) and three different pCO2 levels (750, 1000 and 1250 ppm). The coral skeletons were weighed after 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 months using the buoyant weighing technique. Every treatment consisted of three replicate tanks with two dead coral skeletons.