Environmental controls on daytime net community calcification on a Red Sea reef flat

• Published in: Coral Reefs
• Main Authors: Bernstein, W. N., Hughen, K. A., Langdon, C., McCorkle, D. C., Lentz, S. J.
• Other Authors: MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science Engineering, Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Woods Hole, USA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Woods Hole, USA, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Miami, USA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Springer Nature 2016
• Subjects: Coral; Calcification; CaCO3; Acidification; Aragonite saturation; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10754/623541; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-015-1396-6

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−2 h−1 in December 2010 and 11 ± 1 mmol m−2 h−1 in May 2011, and NCP was 21 ± 7 mmol m−2 h−1 in December 2010 and 44 ± 4 mmol m−2 h−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. We would like to thank Craig Marquette, James Churchill, Pedro De La Torre, William Decarvalho, Jessica Masterman, Luke Mays, Elizabeth Bonk and Rebecca Belastock for assisting in sampling and analysis of samples. We would also like to thank Tom Farrar for providing files of surface irradiance and wind speed. This research was supported by Award No. USA ...