Metabolic tolerance of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa (Scleractinia) to temperature and dissolved oxygen change

Lophelia pertusa is the world's most common and widespread framework-forming cold-water coral. It forms deep-water coral reefs and carbonate mounds supporting diverse animal communities on the continental shelf and on seamounts. These recently discovered ecosystems have been damaged by deep-sea...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology 2007-10, Vol.349 (2), p.205-214
Main Authors: Dodds, L.A., Roberts, J.M., Taylor, A.C., Marubini, F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Anoxia
Biological and medical sciences
Carbonate mound
Cnidaria. Ctenaria
Deep-sea coral
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hypoxia
Invertebrates
Lophelia pertusa
Marine
Physiology
Respiration
Scleractinia
Sea water ecosystems
Synecology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Lophelia pertusa is the world's most common and widespread framework-forming cold-water coral. It forms deep-water coral reefs and carbonate mounds supporting diverse animal communities on the continental shelf and on seamounts. These recently discovered ecosystems have been damaged by deep-sea fishing and are threatened by predicted shallowing of the aragonite saturation horizon. Despite this, very little is known about the ecophysiology of L. pertusa and its likely response to environmental changes. Here we describe the first study of the respiratory physiology of L. pertusa and the effects of altered temperature and oxygen level. This study shows that L. pertusa can maintain respiratory independence over a range of PO 2 illustrated by a high regulation value ( R = 78%). The critical PO 2 value of 9–10 kPa is very similar to the lower values of oxygen concentration recorded in the field. This suggests that oxygen level may be a limiting factor in the distribution of this cold-water coral. L. pertusa survived periods of anoxia (1 h), hypoxia (up to 96 h), but high Q 10 values revealed sensitivity to short-term temperature changes (6.5–11 °C). For the first time vital data have been gathered on the physiology of this species that is essential to understand distribution and underpin future climate change studies.
ISSN:0022-0981
1879-1697
DOI:10.1016/j.jembe.2007.05.013