Deep-sea mining impacts on larval survival of the deep-sea coral Desmophyllum pertusum

In this dataset, we report the results of an aquaria experiment aiming at determining the impacts of Polymetallic sulfide (PMS) plumes of varying concentrations created by deep-sea mining on larval survival of the deep-sea coral Desmophyllum pertusum. Colonies of D. pertusum were collected in December 2022 and January 2023 at Tisler reef, at depths between 100-120 m. Adults were maintained in aquaria and after spawning, embryos were collected and left to develop to 7-day larvae. On day 7, larvae were exposed to four experimental treatments, recreating the potential effects of a PMS mining plume: two treatments contained PMS particles at concentrations of 2.5 mg/L and 5 mg/L respectively, and another two contained only the leachates of PMS particle solutions corresponding to the aforementioned PMS particle concentrations. Temperature was maintained at 8-8.5 °C and pHT at 8.01. Survival was checked by counting surviving larvae after 24h of exposure.