Gene expression of Pocillopora damicornis collected from reef of Heron Island, southern Great Barrier Reef from Jan 2021 to Feb 2021

Abstract

Corals residing in habitats that experience frequent seawater pCO2 variability may possess an enhanced capacity to cope with ocean acidification. Yet, we lack a clear understanding of the molecular toolkit enabling acclimatization to environmental extremes, and how life-long exposure to pCO2 variability influences biomineralization.

We examined the gene expression responses and micro-skeletal characteristics of Pocillopora damicornis originating from the reef flat and reef slope of Heron Island, southern Great Barrier Reef. The reef flat (454 ± 3.0) and reef slope (418 ± 1.9) had similar mean seawater pCO2 (µatm; mean ± SE), but the reef flat experienced twice the mean daily pCO2 amplitude (range of 797v. 399 µatm day-1, respectively). A controlled mesocosm experiment was conducted over eight weeks, from mid-January to late-March 2021, exposing P. damicornis from the reef slope and reef flat to stable (218±9) or variable (911±31) diel pCO2 fluctuations (µatm; mean ± SE). This dataset includes the gene expression data for these samples.

For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/942938