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Data from: Oxygen supersaturation could protect reef-building corals against acute thermal stress

Parry, Anieka1; Klein, Shannon1; Steckbauer, Alexandra1; Dhillon, Max1; Muniz Barreto, Marcelle1; Golding, Victoria1; Re, Eleonora1; Arossa, Silvia1; Aranda, Manuel1; Duarte, Carlos1

Published Nov 10, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7sqv9s55s

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Abstract

Ongoing climate change is constraining the availability of molecular oxygen (O2) on coral reefs. The field has recently invested considerable resources to quantify the effects of hypoxia on corals. However, drivers of reef oxygen decline will not only expose corals to more frequent episodes of hypoxia but also limit peak daytime oxygen levels. Here, we test the theory of oxygen-mediated thermal performance on three reef-building corals by comparing their thermal thresholds under three bulk seawater oxygen concentrations in low flow conditions: 10 mg O2 L⁻¹, 6.5 mg O2 L⁻¹, and < 2 mg O2 L⁻¹. We hypothesized that when the photosynthetic machinery of their microalgal symbionts was impaired, corals in higher oxygen treatments would use oxygen from the bulk water to supplement their heightened metabolic demands under heat stress, thereby increasing their thermal thresholds. These datasets include mortality, photochemical efficiency, and metabolic rates for three coral species from the Red Sea in an acute thermal stress assay under varying oxygen regimes.