Greenhouse conditions induce mineralogical changes and dolomite accumulation in coralline algae on tropical reefs

Guillermo Diaz-Pulido (), Merinda C. Nash, Kenneth R.N. Anthony, Dorothea Bender, Bradley N. Opdyke, Catalina Reyes-Nivia and Ulrike Troitzsch
Additional contact information
Guillermo Diaz-Pulido: Griffith School of Environment, Australian Rivers Institute—Coast and Estuaries, and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Nathan Campus, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road
Merinda C. Nash: Research School of Physics, The Australian National University
Kenneth R.N. Anthony: Australian Institute of Marine Science
Dorothea Bender: Global Change Institute and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, The University of Queensland, St Lucia
Bradley N. Opdyke: Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University
Catalina Reyes-Nivia: Global Change Institute and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, The University of Queensland, St Lucia
Ulrike Troitzsch: Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Human-induced ocean acidification and warming alter seawater carbonate chemistry reducing the calcification of reef-building crustose coralline algae (CCA), which has implications for reef stability. However, due to the presence of multiple carbonate minerals with different solubilities in seawater, the algal mineralogical responses to changes in carbonate chemistry are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate a 200% increase in dolomite concentration in living CCA under greenhouse conditions of high pCO2 (1,225 μatm) and warming (30 °C). Aragonite, in contrast, increases with lower pCO2 (296 μatm) and low temperature (28 °C). Mineral changes in the surface pigmented skeleton are minor and dolomite and aragonite formation largely occurs in the white crust beneath. Dissolution of high-Mg-calcite and particularly the erosive activities of endolithic algae living inside skeletons play key roles in concentrating dolomite in greenhouse treatments. As oceans acidify and warm in the future, the relative abundance of dolomite in CCA will increase.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4310 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4310

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4310

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().