Environmental controls on daytime net community calcification on a Red Sea reef flat
Name
338_2015_Article_1396.pdf
Size
1.41 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
aa3c4fb22d5d0a4cc13b06075809b862
Author(s)
Langdon, C.
Hughen, K. A.
McCorkle, D. C.
Lentz, S. J.
Bernstein, Whitney Nicole
Date Issued
January 2016
Journal
Coral Reefs
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Citation
Bernstein, W. N. et al. “Environmental Controls on Daytime Net Community Calcification on a Red Sea Reef Flat.” Coral Reefs 35.2 (2016): 697–711.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Coral growth and carbonate accumulation form the foundation of the coral reef ecosystem. Changes in environmental conditions due to coastal development, climate change, and ocean acidification may pose a threat to net carbonate production in the near future. Controlled laboratory studies demonstrate that calcification by corals and coralline algae is sensitive to changes in aragonite saturation state (Ωa), as well as temperature, light, and nutrition. Studies also show that the dissolution rate of carbonate substrates is impacted by changes in carbonate chemistry. The sensitivity of coral reefs to these parameters must be confirmed and quantified in the natural environment in order to predict how coral reefs will respond to local and global changes, particularly ocean acidification. We estimated the daytime hourly net community metabolic rates, both net community calcification (NCC) and net community productivity (NCP), at Sheltered Reef, an offshore platform reef in the central Red Sea. Average NCC was 8 ± 3 mmol m[superscript −2] h[superscript −1] in December 2010 and 11 ± 1 mmol m[superscript −2] h[superscript −1] in May 2011, and NCP was 21 ± 7 mmol m[superscript −2] h[superscript −1] in December 2010 and 44 ± 4 mmol m[superscript −2] h[superscript −1] in May 2011. We also monitored a suite of physical and chemical properties to help relate the rates at Sheltered Reef to published rates from other sites. While previous research shows that short-term field studies investigating the NCC–Ωa relationship have differing results due to confounding factors, it is important to continue estimating NCC in different places, seasons, and years, in order to monitor changes in NCC versus Ω in space and time, and to ultimately resolve a broader understanding of this relationship.
MIT Department
Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-015-1396-6
