DOI: 10.25903/hcas-et96
title: Pocillopora acuta preconditioning data

description: <p>Physiological data (symbiont density, chlorophyll a content, protein abundance, photosynthetic maximum and light at saturating irradiance) were collected from Pocillopora acuta coral colonies raised under three temperature and acidification conditions (ambient present day, 2050 and 2100) following transfer into different experimental treatments over summer thermal stress to assess the potential of preconditioning to enhance coral thermal tolerance. Five treatments resulted following the transfer of ambient present day corals into the 2050 and 2100 conditions to examine if preconditioned corals had an enhanced performance compared to naive corals: ambient-control, acute 2050 (i.e. ambient transferred to 2050 conditions), preconditioned 2050, acute 2100 (i.e. ambient transferred to 2100 conditions), and preconditioned 2100. Data were collected at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and quantified following coral sampling via the following analyses: hemocytometer (cell density), spectrophotometer (chlorophyll a content), protein assay, and incubation chambers (photobiology metrics). To statistically analyse differences in each of the five physiological health metrics, generalised linear mixed effects models were run for three fixed factors along with their combined interactions: treatment, sample period and parental reef, and two random factors: coral individual nested within parent colony (genotype). An emmeans pairwise comparison with a Tukey adjustment was used to reveal differences among the five groups.</p>
<p>Software/equipment used to create/collect the data: -Symbiodiniaceae density was determined using a Neubauer hemocytometer and high-powered Olympus microscope. <br />-Chlorophyll a concentration was determined by measuring the absorbance in triplicate at 632nm, 649nm and 665nm using a BioTek microplate spectrophotometer.<br />-Coral host tissue protein concentration was analyzed using the microassay procedure of the BioRad DC Protein Assay Kit II. Sample replicates were measured at 750nm using a BioTek microplate spectrophotometer, along with 8 different concentrations of the BioRad Protein Assay Standard II bovine serum albumin protein standards of a known concentration (0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.08, 0.16, 0.24, 0.36 &micro;g/ml). <br />-To normalize host and Symbiodiniaceae health metrics, the surface area of sample fragments was determined using the wax dipping method (paraffin wax melted at 80&ordm;C).<br />-Respiration testing was conducted by measuring photosynthetic rate via monitoring changes in dissolved oxygen concentration within 450ml acrylic chambers containing individual coral colonies. Concentrations of dissolved oxygen within the chamber were measured every second using FireSting contactless fiber-optic oxygen sensors. Rate of oxygen production was normalized by colony surface area, which was calculated using 3-dimensional photogrammetry methods.</p>
<p>Software/equipment used to manipulate/analyse the data: 3-dimensional photogrammetry was analysed using Agisoft Metashape Professional (version 1.5.2). <br />All statistical analyses were conducted using R version 1.1.442 (packages: glmmTMB, car, bbmle).</p>