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Estimation of photosynthesis and calcification rates at a fringing reef by accounting for diurnal variations and the zonation of coral reef communities on reef flat and slope: a case study for the Shiraho reef, Ishigaki Island, southwest Japan

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Abstract

Seven coral reef communities were defined on Shiraho fringing reef, Ishigaki Island, Japan. Net photosynthesis and calcification rates were measured by in situ incubations at 10 sites that included six of the defined communities, and which occupied most of the area on the reef flat and slope. Net photosynthesis on the reef flat was positive overall, but the reef flat acts as a source for atmospheric CO2, because the measured calcification/photosynthesis ratio of 2.5 is greater than the critical ratio of 1.67. Net photosynthesis on the reef slope was negative. Almost all excess organic production from the reef flat is expected to be effused to the outer reef and consumed by the communities there. Therefore, the total net organic production of the whole reef system is probably almost zero and the whole reef system also acts as a source for atmospheric CO2. Net calcification rates of the reef slope corals were much lower than those of the branching corals. The accumulation rate of the former was approximately 0.5 m kyr−1 and of the latter was ~0.7–5 m kyr−1. Consequently, reef slope corals could not grow fast enough to keep up with or catch up to rising sea levels during the Holocene. On the other hand, the branching corals grow fast enough to keep up with this rising sea level. Therefore, a transition between early Holocene and present-day reef communities is expected. Branching coral communities would have dominated while reef growth kept pace with sea level rise, and the reef was constructed with a branching coral framework. Then, the outside of this framework was covered and built up by reef slope corals and present-day reefs were constructed.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. M. Uehara of the Tohoku University for his advice on buildings of electronic devices and computer programming. We also express our appreciation to Dr. K. Sugihara of the Fukuoka University for his suggestions about the taxonomy of coral species during field surveys. This work was partly supported by the Sasakawa Scientific Research Grant from The Japan Science Society (to Nakamura, 19-619) and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (to Nakamori, 14540434).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3, Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan

    T. Nakamura & T. Nakamori

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  1. T. Nakamura
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Correspondence to T. Nakamura.

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Communicated by Geology Editor: Dr. Bernhard Riegl.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Temperature/pH logger

The temperature/pH logger consisted of a temperature sensor (LM62, National Semiconductor), a combination pH electrode (pHC2401-8, Radiometer Analytical) and a voltage logger unit (Fig. 8). The pH electrode was calibrated using the total hydrogen ion concentration scale (Dickson 1993). The pH electrode has extremely high source impedance (~1012 Ω), therefore, in the voltage logger unit, the electromotive force of the pH electrode was buffered by a voltage follower circuit using an operational amplifier (AD8554, Analog Devices). The output voltage of the op-amp and temperature sensor was converted from analog to digital by a 24-bit A/D converter (AD7718, Analog Devices). The digital data were recorded in an EEPROM (AT24C1024, Atmel). The series of operations to record data was triggered by a timer integrated circuit (RTC-8564NB, Epson), and these devices were controlled by a microcontroller (PIC16F88, Microchip). The resolution and precision of the pH measurement were respectively <0.0001 pH unit and <0.001 pH unit, and these of the temperature measurement were, respectively, <0.001°C and <0.01°C.

Fig. 8
figure 8

Photograph of the temperature/pH logger. The f(CO2) sensor visible in this picture is currently under development and was not used in this study

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Appendix 2

See Table 4

Table 4 Temperature, salinity (S), pH on the total hydrogen ion concentration scale (pHT) at 25°C, total alkalinity (A T), and total dissolved inorganic carbon (C T); calculated pHT, fugacity of CO2 (f(CO2)), calcite and aragonite saturation states (Ω cal and Ω arg, respectively) at in situ temperatures; and the average of net calcification rates (G n), net photosynthesis rates (P n) and photon flux densities (F P) between each experimental time interval at each site
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Nakamura, T., Nakamori, T. Estimation of photosynthesis and calcification rates at a fringing reef by accounting for diurnal variations and the zonation of coral reef communities on reef flat and slope: a case study for the Shiraho reef, Ishigaki Island, southwest Japan. Coral Reefs 28, 229–250 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-008-0454-8

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