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Science 10 November 1978:
Vol. 202. no. 4368, pp. 627 - 629
DOI: 10.1126/science.202.4368.627
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Articles

Oxygen and Carbon Isotopic Growth Record in a Reef Coral from the Florida Keys and a Deep-Sea Coral from Blake Plateau

CESARE EMILIANI 1, J. HAROLD HUDSON 2, EUGENE A. SHINN 2, and ROBERT Y. GEORGE 3

1 Department of Geology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33124
2 U.S. Geological Survey, Fisher Island Station, Miami Beach, Florida 33139
3 Institute of Marine Biomedical Research, University of North Carolina, Wilmington 28401

Carbon and oxygen isotope analysis through a 30-year (1944 to 1974) growth of Montastrea annularis from Hen and Chickens Reef (Florida Keys) shows a strong yearly variation in the abundances of both carbon-13 and oxygen-18 and a broad inverse relationship between the two isotopes. Normal annual dense bands are formed during the summer and are characterized by heavy carbon and light oxygen. "Stress bands" are formed during particularly severe winters and are characterized by heavy carbon and heavy oxygen. The isotopic effect of Zooxanthellae metabolism dominates the temperature effect on the oxygen-18/oxygen-16 ratio. The isotopic results on the deep-sea solitary coral Bathypsammia tintinnabulum, where Zooxanthellae are nonexistent, indicates that the abundance of the heavy isotopes carbon-13 and oxygen-18 is inversely related to the growth rate, with both carbon and oxygen approaching equilibrium values with increasing skeletal age.

Submitted on February 1, 1978
Revised on August 21, 1978


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