Ocean Acidification: Building a Skeleton in a Changing Ocean

Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification due to their calcium carbonate "skeletons," yet little is known about how ocean acidification will affect coral recruitment. In this exercise, students will examine a species of stony or hard coral belonging to the Order Scleractinia, Favia fragum, and examine how ocean acidification and changes in seawater saturation state (carbonate ion concentration) can affect the calcification process of new recruits of this coral species in Bermuda. After a brief introduction to coral reproduction and recruitment, as well as the chemistry behind calcification and acidification, students will go on to understand the experimental design, obtain and manipulate real data, and analyze the dataset.