(Table 2) Chemical composition of skeletons of scleractinian non-zooxanthelate corals

• Main Authors: Keller, Natalia B, Demina, Lyudmila V, Os'kina, Natalia S
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2007
• Subjects: AK-14-1209; AK-14-1292; AK-25; Akademik Kurchatov; Akademik Mstislav Keldysh; AKU14; Aluminium; AMK4; AMK4-385; AMK4-464; Archive of Ocean Data; ARCOD; Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS); Cadmium; Calcium; Caribbean Sea; Aves Ridge; Copper; DM-1265; Dredge; DRG; Elevation of event; Event label; Fiji Basin; Gulf von Mexico; Indian Ocean; eastern part of the Somali Basin; Iron; Latitude of event; Lead; Longitude of event; Magnesium; Manganese; MU-15(11); North Atlantic; Great Meteor Seamount; Northwest Pacific; eastern slope of the central Kuril-Kamchatka Trench; Ob-460; Potassium; PS-1996; Silicon; Slope of the Mordvinov Island; Southeast Pacific; Species; Strontium; Temperature; water; Titanium; Indian; Meteor Seamount; Pacific; Kamchatka
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.725516; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.725516

The first data on chemical composition of nonreef-building non-zooxanthellate deep-sea corals presented in this publication allow us to identify following tendencies manifested in the biomineralization process. Comparison of concentration levels of some chemical elements in scleractinian corals and ambient ocean waters suggests that corals do not accumulate K in the process of biomineralization and weakly accumulate Mg, whereas Ca, Sr, Si, Al, Ti, Mn, Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb, and Fe are concentrated in skeletons of corals with enrichment coefficients of 10**3 to 10**7. Correlations between components contained in the skeletons of scleractinian corals suggest that the source of Al, Si, Fe, and Ti in them is the clayey constituent of bottom sediments and zooplankton, while trace elements are likely accumulated via bioassimilation from seawater. Such elements as Mn, Sr, Pb, and Cd can structurally substitute Ca in calcite and aragonite. Variations in concentrations of the elements in coral skeletons depending on their habitat depths are fairly significant. As could be expected Ca and Mg concentrations are prone to decrease with depth (R = -0.55 and -0.51, respectively), which can possibly be caused by partial dissolution of carbonate skeletons with increasing depth, whereas the Sr/Ca ratio does not depend on depth.