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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-5987</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Active Calcifying Fluid pH Upregulation Facilitates Resilience of the Coral &lt;em&gt;Tubastraea aurea&lt;/em&gt; to Ocean Acidification</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Girija</surname>
<given-names>Gowri Krishna</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5227-2935</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Tseng</surname>
<given-names>Li-Chun</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Iizuka</surname>
<given-names>Yoshiyuki</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hwang</surname>
<given-names>Jiang-Shiou</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Yi- Wei</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2958-0347</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 202301, Taiwan</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Earth Science, Academia Sinica, Nangang 11529, Taiwan</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Centre of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 202301, Taiwan</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>23</day>
<month>10</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>24</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Gowri Krishna Girija et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5987/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5987/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5987/egusphere-2026-5987.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5987/egusphere-2026-5987.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Ocean acidification poses a critical threat to marine calcifiers, yet the physiological mechanisms allowing certain species to thrive in high-CO₂ environments remain poorly understood. Kueishan Island (Taiwan) provides a unique natural laboratory to address this gap. While nearby non-vent reefs support diverse coral communities, the strongly acidified hydrothermal vent fields at Kueishan Island are dominated by the azooxanthellate coral &lt;em&gt;Tubastraea aurea&lt;/em&gt;. Here, we tested whether this persistence is driven by regulation of the calcifying microenvironment. Using skeletal boron isotope (&amp;delta;&amp;sup1;&amp;sup1;B) composition and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we reconstructed calcifying-fluid pH (pH&lt;sub&gt;CF&lt;/sub&gt;) and assessed skeletal microstructure in specimens from the vent site (HV, pH ~6.6) and a reference site (FU, pH ~8.0). Despite a ~1.4-unit difference in ambient seawater pH (pH&lt;sub&gt;SW&lt;/sub&gt;), the estimated pH&lt;sub&gt;CF&lt;/sub&gt; was indistinguishable between sites (HV 8.45&amp;thinsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;thinsp;0.02, FU 8.38&amp;thinsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;thinsp;0.01), resulting in a markedly larger &amp;Delta;pH (pH&lt;sub&gt;CF&lt;/sub&gt; &amp;minus; pH&lt;sub&gt;SW&lt;/sub&gt;) at the vents. While SEM analysis revealed no gross dissolution at the resolution examined, vent colonies were smaller than reference counterparts, suggesting possible growth constraints under extreme conditions (exploratory given limited colony replication). These findings indicate that &lt;em&gt;T. aurea &lt;/em&gt;maintains elevated pH&lt;sub&gt;CF&lt;/sub&gt; in exceptionally low-pH seawater, highlighting a physiological capacity that could contribute to skeletal maintenance under future acidified oceans.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="24"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>National Science and Technology Council</funding-source>
<award-id>MOST 110-2621-M-019-001</award-id>
<award-id>MOST 111-2621-M-019-001</award-id>
<award-id>NSTC 112-2621-M-019-002</award-id>
<award-id>NSTC 112-2116-M-001-034</award-id>
<award-id>NSTC 113-2116-M-001-020</award-id>
<award-id>NSTC 114-2621-M-019-003</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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