Thermal extremes likely trigger metabolic imbalance in coral holobionts

Coral reefs are facing increasingly frequent and intense periods of anomalously high temperatures in the Anthropocene. Metabolism scales directly with temperature and we hypothesized that at peak temperatures oxygen consumption may outpace photosynthetic oxygen production in coral holobionts, leading to metabolic challenges, particularly at night when photosynthesis is not occurring. To investigate this we compiled a dataset of metabolic rates extracted from the published literature of respiration and photosynthetic rates of corals and then modelled these rates using a thermal performance curve approach. From this we could estimate the thermal optima (Topt), activation energy (E) and deactivation energy (ED) of each metabolic rate. We found a largely consistent trend across latitudinal regions and taxa that net photosynthesis peaks at temperatures lower than respiration, and begins to decline while respiration is still increasing impacting the oxygen budget of the holobiont. This datase..., , # Thermal extremes likely trigger metabolic imbalance in coral holobionts

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.qz612jmv8](10.5061/dryad.qz612jmv8)

**Description of the data and file structure**

This dataset contains metabolic rates of hermatypic corals extracted from experimental assessments in the published literature, compiled following an exhaustive literature review. Included are hourly metabolic rates along with the associated incubation temperature for each observation. Where only dark respiration and net photosynthesis were reported, gross photosynthesis and the P:R ratio were calculated.

The dataset comprises **291 metabolic rate entries** (averaged per temperature point) from coral holobionts representing a broad range of locations and taxa. All rates have been standardized to the units **µmol O₂ cm⁻² h⁻¹**, except the P:R ratio, which is unitless.

Further analyses (e.g., daily rates, groupings by latitude and taxa) are included in the supplementary materials of the associated manu...,