Seasonal acclimation of thermal performance in two species of reef-building corals

Brief description

Photosynthesis rates, respiration rates, maximum PSII quantum yield and electron transport rates were measured in winter and summer on coral fragments exposed to an acute temperature increase and decrease up to 5 ⁰C above and below the average seawater temperature in each season. 

Full description

This dataset quantified the seasonal variation in the thermal performance of several coral and symbiont dominated physiological traits for the thermally tolerant coral species, Porites cylindrica, and thermally sensitive coral species, Acropora valenciennesi. Photosynthesis rates, respiration rates, maximum PSII quantum yield and electron transport rates were measured in winter and summer on coral fragments exposed to an acute temperature increase and decrease up to 5 ⁰C above and below the average seawater temperature in each season. Measurement were collected using respirometry and fluorometry (PAM). Both winter (August-September 2015) and summer (January-February 2016) thermal experiments were performed at Orpheus Island Research Station, GBR.

Notes

Data collected for 25 coral fragments of 2 species across two seasons.

This dataset is available as a spreadsheet saved in both MS Excel (.xlsx) and Open Document (.ods) formats.