Calcium carbonate production, coral reef growth, and sea level change

Shallow, seaward portions of modern coral reefs produce about 4 kilograms of calcium carbonate per square meter per year, and protected areas produce about 0.8 kilogram per square meter per year. The difference is probably largely a function of water motion. The more rapid rate, equivalent to a maximum vertical accretion of 3 to 5 millimeters per year, places an upper limit on the potential of modern coral reef communities to create a significant vertical structure on a rising sea.     

Nitrogen fixation in a coral reef community

Algal reef flats at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, fix atmospheric nitrogen at rates comparable to those in managed agriculture. The dominant nitrogen fixer appears to be the blue-green alga Calothrix crustacea. Since this nutrient enrichment contributes to the high productivity of adjacent coral reefs and undoubtedly to atoll lagoons, it is recommended that the algal reef flats receive increased conservation priority.     

Net primary productivity in coral reef sponges

Nine of the ten most common sponge species on the fore-reef slope of Davies Reef(Great Barrier Reef) contain symbiotic cyanobacteria. Six of the ten are net primary producers, with three times more oxygen produced by photosynthesis than is consumed during respiration. Light interception is enhanced by morphological flattening, thereby increasing the potential for phototrophic nutrition, a factor crucial in the ecology of most sessile coral reef invertebrates.     

Community structure of coral reefs on opposite sides of the isthmus of panama

Competition for space amon reef corals includes interspecific destruction by extracoelenteric digestion., rapid growth. and Overtopping. No Caribbean species excela in all strategies, and on western Caribbean coral reefs there is a positive correlation between coral abudance and diversity. On eastern Pacific coral reefs, however. Pocillopora damicornis excludes other corals, and on these reefs there is an inverse relation between coral abundance and diversity, except in areas where distrubances, such as Acanthaster predation offset space monopolization.     

Solar ultraviolet radiation and coral reef epifauna

Many "shade-loving" reef organisms show adverse effects when irradiated with full natural sunlight but not if radiation shorter than 400 nanometers is screened out. Shortwave solar radiation appears to be an important physical factor controlling the biology of shallow tropical benthic marine communities.     

Oxygen and carbon isotopic growth record in a reef coral from the Florida keys and a deep-sea coral from blake plateau

Carbon and oxygen isotope analysis through a 30-year (1944 to 1974) growth of Montastrea annularis from Hen and Chickens Reef (Florida Keys) shows a strong yearly variation in the abundances of both carbon-13 and oxygen-18 and a broad inverse relationship between the two isotopes. Normal annual dense bands are formed during the summer and are characterized by heavy carbon and light oxygen. "Stress bands" are formed during particularly severe winters and are characterized by heavy carbon and heavy oxygen. The isotopic effect of Zooxanthellae metabolism dominates the temperature effect on the oxygen-18/oxygen-16 ratio. The isotopic results on the deep-sea solitary coral Bathypsammia tintinnabulum, where Zooxanthellae are nonexistent, indicates that the abundance of the heavy isotopes carbon-13 and oxygen-18 is inversely related to the growth rate, with both carbon and oxygen approaching equilibrium values with increasing skeletal age.     

Preindustrial to modern interdecadal variability in coral reef pH

The oceans are becoming more acidic due to absorption of anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems is unclear, but it will likely depend on species adaptability and the rate of change of seawater pH relative to its natural variability. To constrain the natural variability in reef-water pH, we measured boron isotopic compositions in a approximately 300-year-old massive Porites coral from the southwestern Pacific. Large variations in pH are found over approximately 50-year cycles that covary with the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation of ocean-atmosphere anomalies, suggesting that natural pH cycles can modulate the impact of ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems.     

Hybridization and the evolution of reef coral diversity

Hundreds of coral species coexist sympatrically on reefs, reproducing in mass-spawning events where hybridization appears common. In the Caribbean, DNA sequence data from all three sympatric Acropora corals show that mass spawning does not erode species barriers. Species A. cervicornis and A. palmata are distinct at two nuclear loci or share ancestral alleles. Morphotypes historically given the name Acropora prolifera are entirely F(1) hybrids of these two species, showing morphologies that depend on which species provides the egg for hybridization. Although selection limits the evolutionary potential of hybrids, F(1) individuals can reproduce asexually and form long-lived, potentially immortal hybrids with unique morphologies.     

Recruitment and population dynamics of a coral reef fish

Daily otolith increments were used to determine the daily pattern of settlement of the bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum), a Caribbean coral reef fish. Recruitment occurs in brief and sporadic episodes even though bluehead wrasses spawn every day. Patterns of recruitment do not correspond to patterns of mortality on the reef. The composition of the adult population directly reflects the relative rates of recruitment of juveniles the year before. The population dynamics of this species may therefore be determined by the supply of recruits and not by the supply of space or some other resource on the reef.     

Comment on "Preindustrial to modern interdecadal variability in coral reef pH"

Based on the boron isotopic composition of coral from the southwestern Pacific, Pelejero et al. (Reports, 30 September 2005, p. 2204) suggested that natural variations in pH can modulate the impact of ocean acidification on coral reef ecosystems. We show that this claim cannot be reconciled with other marine carbon chemistry constraints and highlight problems with the authors' interpretation of the paleontologic data.     

Local replenishment of coral reef fish populations in a marine reserve

The scale of larval dispersal of marine organisms is important for the design of networks of marine protected areas. We examined the fate of coral reef fish larvae produced at a small island reserve, using a mass-marking method based on maternal transmission of stable isotopes to offspring. Approximately 60% of settled juveniles were spawned at the island, for species with both short (<2 weeks) and long (>1 month) pelagic larval durations. If natal homing of larvae is a common life-history strategy, the appropriate spatial scales for the management and conservation of coral reefs are likely to be much smaller than previously assumed.     

Interocean differences in size and nutrition of coral reef sponge populations

Sponges consume an order of magnitude more organic matter on Caribbean coral reefs than on the Great Barrier Reef. This rate of consumption is attributed to Caribbean sponge biomass being five to six times greater than that on the Great Barrier Reef, on average, and to the absence in the Caribbean of phototrophic sponges, which are a feature of clean water regions of the Great Barrier Reef. The long temporal and spatial separation of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans has resulted in the evolution of dissimilar sponge faunas, with Caribbean sponges being heterotrophic, whereas many Great Barrier Reef sponges rely on nutritional input from photosynthetic symbionts.