Coral Reef Foraminifera Responses to Temperature and pH Stressors, 2011

NERP TE 5.2, AIMS and MARUM measured five physiological effects of temperature and pH stressors on two species of benthic coral reef Foraminifera. The dataset contains results from a 53-day aquarium experiment conducted in 2011, measuring respiration, survivorship, growth, chlorophyll-a content, and photochemistry. Specimens were collected from Orpheus Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

Use Cases

• Modeling species survivorship under combined temperature and pH stress based on the 7-week experiment.
• Analyzing growth rate changes in Foraminifera under different pCO2 levels mentioned in the description.
• Studying correlations between chlorophyll-a content and photochemical efficiency under experimental stressors.
• Comparing physiological responses between the two species, Marginopora vertebralis and Heterostegina depressa, collected from different depths.

Strengths

• Experimental design includes three replicate tanks per treatment condition for statistical robustness.
• Data covers five distinct physiological measurements: respiration, survivorship, growth, chl-a content, and photochemistry.
• Specimens were acclimated for 3 weeks prior to the 53-day experiment, suggesting controlled baseline conditions.
• Manual temperature and pH measurements were performed once to twice daily, and water chemistry was analyzed weekly.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from a single experiment in 2011; temporal and geographic scope is limited.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au, associated with NERP TE 5.2, AIMS and MARUM.

Collection Method

Data from a controlled 53-day aquarium experiment manipulating temperature and pH, with specimens collected from Orpheus Island, Great Barrier Reef.

Time Range

2011 (specimen collection and experiment in September 2011).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 22:47:20.031696; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Orpheus Island, central Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Cattle Bay and Hazard Bay).