Geochemical Evidence of Hourly Ecosystem Photosynthetic Plasticity within a Pristine Coral Atoll - Supplementary Material ...

• Main Author: Bolden, Isaiah
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Mendeley Data 2023
• Subjects: Photosynthesis; Chemical Oceanography; Calcification; Coral Reef; Aquatic Productivity; Ocean Acidification; Carbon Isotope; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17632/6pfx6cpp39; https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/6pfx6cpp39

Here, we use co-located measurements of total dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, and the stable carbon isotope composition of DIC (δ13C-DIC) over a 27+ hour period from Tetiaroa Atoll, French Polynesia to isolate steady-state (i.e. near dusk and near dawn) values for the photosynthetic fractionation factor between stable carbon isotopes in DIC and organic matter, εorg. We then interpret these isolated values in the context of ambient carbonate chemistry to investigate εorg as a proxy for monitoring the composition and behavior of primary producers within coral reef ecosystems. Quantitatively decomposed values of steady-state εorg over the sampling period (-13.9 ± 2.8‰ ≤ εorg ≤ -4.5 ± 1.8‰) suggest that inorganic carbon physiology of the reef algal community is plastic on daily timescales or longer, potentially as functions of ambient CO2 and acidity within the ecosystem. While more work is needed to understand the applicability of our approach to reef ecosystems of a variety of morphologies and ...