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Vital effects in coral skeletal composition display strict three-dimensional control
Laboratoire d'Etude de la Matiere Extraterrestre USM 0205 (LEME), Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
UMR 8148/IDES Geologie, Bât. 504, Faculté des sciences, Université Paris Sud 11, Orsay, France
Département Milieux et Peuplements Aquatiques, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
UMR 8148/IDES Geologie, Bât. 504, Faculté des sciences, Université Paris Sud 11, Orsay, France
Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Monaco
Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Monaco
Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Monaco
U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, USA
Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
Biological control over coral skeletal composition is poorly understood but critically important to paleo-environmental reconstructions. We present micro-analytical measurements of trace-element abundances as well as oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions of individual skeletal components in the zooxanthellate coral Colpophyllia sp. Our data show that centers of calcification (COC) have higher trace element concentrations and distinctly lighter isotopic compositions than the fibrous components of the skeleton. These observations necessitate that COC and the fibrous skeleton are precipitated by different mechanisms, which are controlled by specialized domains of the calicoblastic cell-layer. Biological processes control the composition of the skeleton even at the ultra-structure level.
Received 6 February 2006; accepted 1 May 2006; published 9 June 2006.
Citation: (2006), Vital effects in coral skeletal composition display strict three-dimensional control, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L11608, doi:10.1029/2006GL025968.
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