Latitudinal variation in thermal performance of the common coral Pocillopora spp.

Understanding how tropical corals respond to temperatures is important to evaluating their capacity to persist in a warmer future. We studied the common Pacific coral Pocillopora over 44° of latitude, and used populations at three islands with different thermal regimes to compare their responses to temperature using thermal performance curves (TPCs) for respiration and gross photosynthesis. Corals were sampled in the local autumn from Moorea, Guam, and Okinawa where mean (± s.d.) annual seawater temperature is 28.0 ± 0.9°C, 28.9 ± 0.7°C, and 25.1 ± 3.4°C, respectively. TPCs for respiration were similar among latitudes, the thermal optimum (Topt) was above the local maximum temperature at all three islands, and maximum respiration was lowest at Okinawa. TPCs for gross photosynthesis were wider, implying greater thermal eurytopy, with a higher Topt in Moorea versus Guam and Okinawa. Topt was above the maximum temperature in Moorea, but was similar to daily temperatures over 13% of the yea..., Overview
The study contrasted the thermal biology of corals from Moorea (-17.5°, -149.8°), Guam (13.5°, 144.7°), and Okinawa (26.6°, 127.9°), crossing 44° of latitude and different thermal environments. Pocillopora is a common genus of scleractinian corals found throughout the Indo-Pacific, and it was used to evaluate plasticity in the phenotypic response to differing temperatures that can provide insight into the capacity of corals to tolerate warming seas. Most corals in this genus (excluding the brooders P. acuta and P. damicornis) are considered “competitive” because they are efficient at resource use, they reproduce by broadcast spawning, and can dominate fore reef habitats.
Thermal performance curves (TPCs) were used to quantify the effects of temperature using dark respiration and gross photosynthesis as response variables. The thermal context of each location was characterized through the mean daily seawater temperatures over the 5 years preceding the present analyses, as calcul..., , # Data for: Latitudinal variation in thermal performance of the common coral Pocillopora spp.

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bk3j9kdm8](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bk3j9kdm8)

This data package contains THREE files

**Data file: Photosynthesis_Irradiance**

 These data describe net photosynthesis as a function of light intensity (photon flux density) for the two corals in each location that were used to establish that photosynthesis was measured at a saturating irradiance

 Location = island where work was conducted

Light = photon flux density under which metabolism was measured, units oif µmol photons per meter square per second

Net flux = change in oxygen concentration in units of nmol oxygen per meter square per minute

Coral = coral ID number

**Data file: Respiration_and_photosynthesis**

These data describe the dark respiration and gross photosynthesis of the Pocillopora corals used in this study

Coral = unique identified for each coral, A - W are unique genotypes for each l...