Table of Contents

• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Funding

This study characterizes the metabolism of the endemic Antarctic coral Flabellum impensum by measuring oxygen consumption and metabolic enzyme activity.  This dataset is a comparison of Flabellum impensum metabolism with other corals reported in the literature and is from a table extracted from the paper,

Metabolism of an Antarctic solitary coral, Flabellum impensum. 2013, by Lara V. Henry and Joseph J. Torres found in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 449 (2013) 17-21.  (Table 1)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2013.08.010

Studies referred to in Table 1:

L. Buhl-Mortensen, P.B. Mortensen, S. Armsworthy, and D. Jackson, 2007.  Field observations of Flabellum spp. and laboratory study of the behavior and respiration of Flabellum alabastrum.  Bull. Mar. Sci., 81 (3) (2007), pp. 543–552.

P.S. Davies, 1980.  Short-term growth measurements of corals using an accurate buoyant weighing technique.  Mar. Biol., 101 (1989), pp. 389–395.

B.T. Hargrave, V.E. Kostylev, and C.M. Hawkins, 2004.  Benthic epifauna assemblages, biomass, and respiration in The Gully region on the Scotian Shelf, NW Atlantic Ocean.  Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 270 (2004), pp. 55–70.

T. Ikeda, B. Bruce, 1986.  Metabolic activity and elemental composition of krill and other zooplankton from Prydz Bay, Antarctica, during early summer (November–December).  Mar. Biol., 92 (1986), pp. 545–555.

K.M. Scolardi, K.L. Daly, E.A. Pakhomov, J.J. Torres, 2006. Feeding ecology and metabolism of the Antarctic cydippid ctenophore Callianira antarctica.  Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 317 (2006), pp. 111–126

J.M. Shick, 1990. Diffusion limitation and hyperoxic enhancement of oxygen consumption in zooxanthellate sea anemones, zoanthids, and corals.  Biol. Bull., 179 (1990), pp. 148–158.

E.V. Thuesen, and J.J. Childress, 1994. Oxygen consumption rates and metabolic enzyme activities of oceanic California medusae in relation to body size and habitat depth.  Biol. Bull., 187 (1994), pp. 84–98.

Corals were collected with a 10 m otter trawl by the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer off the Western Antarctic Peninsula during March 2010.  The corals were collected off Anvers Island at 600 m and off Charcot Islands at 200 meters depth.

Measurements were taken on 9 specimens.

(See Henry and Torres paper cited above for more details.)

Individuals with no signs of trauma were allowed to recover in pre-chilled seawater in 0 degrees from 12 to 22 hours before being used in experiments.

(See Henry and Torres paper cited above for more details.)

The major goals of this project were changed somewhat when collecting data in the Cariaco region of the Caribbean was not possible due to "severe problems with infrastructure at the proposed study site" (from Final Report).

The first goal was expanded to include the study of species of coral from the Antarctic, the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal waters of Puerto Rico to shed light on metabolic adaptation to depth, darkness, and temperature. 

Coral habitats span the range from tropical to polar, extremely shallow to thousands of
feet deep. The differences in light, temperature, and depth experienced in these varied
habitats likely affect the metabolic rates of the corals residing there. The metabolism of
three coral species from different habitats were examined to elucidate the effects
of these environmental parameters on an under-studied aspect of coral biology.

The second goal was to determine the adaptation to temperature of tropical and subtropical teleosts at the mitochondrial level.

The maintenance of a functional energy balance in ectothermic fauna can be
challenging in a thermally disparate environment. The present work describes how the
energetic machinery in the cell, particularly the mitochondrion, is affected by
temperature changes. More specifically, this work determined how environmental
temperature affects the mitochondrial energetic performance of fishes from disparate
thermal regimes.

(excerpted from the Final Report for Award 0727883.

Pleuragramma antarcticum, the Antarctic silverfish, plays a key role in the trophic pyramid of the Antarctic coastal ecosystem, acting as food for larger fishes, flying and non-flying seabirds, pinnipeds, and whales. In turn, they are predators on coastal euphausiids, including both Euphausia superba and E. crystallorophias. Historically, Pleuragramma have been an important food source for Adélie Penguins of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), but during the last decade Pleuragramma have disappeared from the Adélie diet. We suggest that Pleuragramma's absence from the diets of top predators is linked to the declining sea ice canopy, which serves as a nursery for eggs and larvae during the austral spring. The research will investigate four hydrographic regimes over the WAP continental shelf with the following features: (1) persistent gyral flows that act to retain locally spawned larvae, (2) spring sea ice that has declined in recent years (3) the prevalence of adult silverfish, and (4) the presence of breeding Adélie penguins whose diets vary in the proportions of silverfish consumed. The research will evaluate the importance of local reproduction versus larval advection, and the extent to which populations in the subregions of study are genetically distinct, via analysis of population structure, otolith microchemistry and molecular genetics of fish. The Pleuragramma data will be compared with penguin diet samples taken synoptically.