We conducted a long-term (6 months) multiple stressor aquarium experiment with the cold-water coral Desmophyllum pertusum (syn. Lophelia pertusa) under future environmental conditions. The experiment with live corals consisted of four different treatments to investigate the combined effect of ocean acidification, warming, deoxygenation and food limitation on their physiology: 1) control (9 °C, pH 8.1, 100 % oxygen, 100 % food availability), 2) multiple stressor with high feeding (12 °C, pH 7.7, 90 % oxygen, 100 % food availability), 3) multiple stressor with low feeding (12 °C, pH 7.7, 90 % oxygen, 50 % food availability) and 4) reduced oxygen (9 °C, pH 8.1, 90 % oxygen, 100 % food availability). Every treatment consisted of three replicate tanks with four live corals (treatments 1-4). In a parallel experiment, we also examined the dissolution rates of dead coral skeletons at three different pCO2 levels (treatment 5: 750, treatment 6: 1000 and treatment 7: 1250 ppm) after 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 months. Every treatment consisted of three replicate tanks with two dead coral skeletons (treatments 1, 2 and 5-7). Water parameters (temperature, salinity, pH and oxygen concentration) were measured five times per week in every coral tank.

Temperature, salinity, pH and oxygen concentration measured during the course of a long-term multiple-stressor aquarium experiment with the cold-water coral Desmophyllum pertusum