Newly deceased Caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms
Coral mortality triggers the loss of carbonates fixed within coral skeletons, compromising the reef matrix. Here, we estimate rates of carbonate loss in newly deceased colonies of four Caribbean reef-building corals. We use samples from living and recently deceased colonies following a stony coral t...
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10497637/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37699971 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05301-3 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10497637 2023-10-09T21:54:54+02:00 Newly deceased Caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms Medellín-Maldonado, Francisco Cruz-Ortega, Israel Pérez-Cervantes, Esmeralda Norzogaray-López, Orion Carricart-Ganivet, Juan P. López-Pérez, Andrés Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo 2023-09-12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10497637/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37699971 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05301-3 en eng Nature Publishing Group UK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10497637/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37699971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05301-3 © Springer Nature Limited 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . Commun Biol Article Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05301-3 2023-09-17T00:57:15Z Coral mortality triggers the loss of carbonates fixed within coral skeletons, compromising the reef matrix. Here, we estimate rates of carbonate loss in newly deceased colonies of four Caribbean reef-building corals. We use samples from living and recently deceased colonies following a stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) outbreak. Optical densitometry and porosity analyses reveal a loss of up to 40% of the calcium carbonate (CaCO(3)) content in dead colonies. The metabolic activity of the endolithic organisms colonizing the dead skeletons is likely partially responsible for the observed dissolution. To test for the consequences of mass mortality events over larger spatial scales, we integrate our estimates of carbonate loss with field data of the composition and size structure of coral communities. The dissolution rate depends on the relative abundance of coral species and the structural properties of their skeletons, yet we estimate an average reduction of 1.33 kg CaCO(3) m(−2), nearly 7% of the total amount of CaCO(3) sequestered in the entire system. Our findings highlight the importance of including biological and chemical processes of CaCO(3) dissolution in reef carbonate budgets, particularly as the impacts of global warming, ocean acidification, and disease likely enhance dissolution processes. Text Ocean acidification PubMed Central (PMC) Communications Biology 6 1 |
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Article Medellín-Maldonado, Francisco Cruz-Ortega, Israel Pérez-Cervantes, Esmeralda Norzogaray-López, Orion Carricart-Ganivet, Juan P. López-Pérez, Andrés Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo Newly deceased Caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms |
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Coral mortality triggers the loss of carbonates fixed within coral skeletons, compromising the reef matrix. Here, we estimate rates of carbonate loss in newly deceased colonies of four Caribbean reef-building corals. We use samples from living and recently deceased colonies following a stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) outbreak. Optical densitometry and porosity analyses reveal a loss of up to 40% of the calcium carbonate (CaCO(3)) content in dead colonies. The metabolic activity of the endolithic organisms colonizing the dead skeletons is likely partially responsible for the observed dissolution. To test for the consequences of mass mortality events over larger spatial scales, we integrate our estimates of carbonate loss with field data of the composition and size structure of coral communities. The dissolution rate depends on the relative abundance of coral species and the structural properties of their skeletons, yet we estimate an average reduction of 1.33 kg CaCO(3) m(−2), nearly 7% of the total amount of CaCO(3) sequestered in the entire system. Our findings highlight the importance of including biological and chemical processes of CaCO(3) dissolution in reef carbonate budgets, particularly as the impacts of global warming, ocean acidification, and disease likely enhance dissolution processes. |
format |
Text |
author |
Medellín-Maldonado, Francisco Cruz-Ortega, Israel Pérez-Cervantes, Esmeralda Norzogaray-López, Orion Carricart-Ganivet, Juan P. López-Pérez, Andrés Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo |
author_facet |
Medellín-Maldonado, Francisco Cruz-Ortega, Israel Pérez-Cervantes, Esmeralda Norzogaray-López, Orion Carricart-Ganivet, Juan P. López-Pérez, Andrés Alvarez-Filip, Lorenzo |
author_sort |
Medellín-Maldonado, Francisco |
title |
Newly deceased Caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms |
title_short |
Newly deceased Caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms |
title_full |
Newly deceased Caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms |
title_fullStr |
Newly deceased Caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms |
title_full_unstemmed |
Newly deceased Caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms |
title_sort |
newly deceased caribbean reef-building corals experience rapid carbonate loss and colonization by endolithic organisms |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10497637/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37699971 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05301-3 |
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Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_source |
Commun Biol |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10497637/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37699971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05301-3 |
op_rights |
© Springer Nature Limited 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05301-3 |
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Communications Biology |
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