Effect of salinity on the skeletal chemistry of cultured scleractinian zooxanthellate corals
- Author(s)
- Chloé Pretet, Stephanie Reynaud, Christine Ferrier-Pagès, Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Balz Kamber
- Abstract
The effect of salinity on the elemental and isotopic skeletal composition of modern zooxanthellate scleractinian corals (Acropora sp., Montipora verrucosa
and Stylophora pistillata) was investigated in order to evaluate potential salinity proxies. Corals were cultured in the laboratory at three salinities (36, 38 and 40). The other environmental parameters were kept constant. For all species
analyzed, Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca, U/Ca and Li/Ca ratios were not influenced by salinity changes. The Ba/Ca ratio also lacks a systematic relationship with salinity and exhibits high intergeneric variations, up to one order of magnitude. On the
contrary, the Cd/Ca ratio decreases as a function of increasing salinity, and
d18O and d13C also presented a significant response, but with opposite trends to salinity variations. Since Cd/Ca is usually considered as an upwelling proxy, its salinity dependence could compromise the upwelling signal, unless
some corrections can be carried out. Regardless, if the dependence found in the present dataset proved to be widespread and systematic, the Cd/Ca ratio could represent a promising salinometer awaiting further investigation. This
study also confirmed the reliability of the well-established temperature proxies Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca and U/Ca, as these ratios were insensitive to salinity variations. Moreover, our results showed that d18O or d13C can be considered as reliable temperature recorders as far as the salinity effect is removed from the parameter reconstructed (e.g., temperature). Investigating the influence of salinity on the skeletal chemistry of scleractinian corals grown under controlled environmental conditions confirmed previous results, validated isotopic corrections, and identified a promising proxy of salinity.- Organisation(s)
- External organisation(s)
- Centre Scientifique de Monaco (CSM), Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, University of Dublin
- Journal
- Coral Reefs
- Volume
- 33
- Pages
- 169-180
- No. of pages
- 12
- ISSN
- 0722-4028
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-013-1098-x
- Publication date
- 11-2013
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105906 Environmental geosciences
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Aquatic Science
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/b546d5b4-f8b7-4d68-bf4f-4e62072dedf3