Brown seaweed Nemacystus decipiens intensifies the effects of ocean acidification on coral Montipora digitata

Abstract

Photosynthetic marine macrophytes such as seaweeds have been proposed to provide habitat refugia for marine calcifiers against ocean acidification (OA) by increasing the local pH. However, the effectiveness of seaweed as a potential habitat refugia for marine calcifiers such as corals remains to be investigated. This study focused on the seaweed Nemacystus decipiens, which are widely farmed in the shallow reef lagoon of Okinawa coral reefs, Japan, and aimed to evaluate their response to high pCO₂ and whether they can mitigate the effect of high pCO₂ on the coral Montipora digitata. Corals were cultured with and without seaweed under control (300-400 μatm) or high pCO₂ conditions (OA, 900-1000 μatm) for 2 weeks. Results showed that all photo-physiological parameters examined in the seaweed N. decipiens were not affected by high pCO₂, suggesting that OA will not positively affect their productivity. The calcification rate of the coral M. digitata was found to decrease under OA and the effect was further exaggerated by the presence of seaweed. The present study suggests that farming seaweeds will not act as a potential habitat refugia for adjacent corals under future OA, but instead can exaggerate the negative effect of OA on coral calcification.

Keywords: Acidification; Aquaculture; Coral; Refugia; Seaweed.