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Structure and palaeoenvironmental implications of inter-branch coenosteum-rich skeleton in corymbose Acropora species

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An Erratum to this article was published on 06 June 2015

Abstract

Coral reefs provide an increasingly important archive of palaeoclimate data that can be used to constrain climate model simulations. Reconstructing past environmental conditions may also provide insights into the potential of reef systems to survive changes in the Earth’s climate. Reef-based palaeoclimate reconstructions are predominately derived from colonies of massive Porites, with the most abundant genus in the Indo-Pacific—Acropora—receiving little attention owing to their branching growth trajectories, high extension rates and secondary skeletal thickening. However, inter-branch skeleton (consisting of both coenosteum and corallites) near the bases of corymbose Acropora colonies holds significant potential as a climate archive. This region of Acropora skeleton is atypical, having simple growth trajectories with parallel corallites, approximately horizontal density banding, low apparent extension rates and a simple microstructure with limited secondary thickening. Hence, inter-branch skeleton in Acropora bears more similarities to the coralla of massive corals, such as Porites, than to traditional Acropora branches. Cyclic patterns of Sr/Ca ratios in this structure suggest that the observed density banding is annual in nature, thus opening up the potential to use abundant corymbose Acropora for palaeoclimate reconstruction.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank senior radiographer Mr. Bede Yates and the staff at St. Vincent’s Private Hospital Radiography Department for providing initial CT scans and X-radiographs. Carden Wallace (Queensland Museum) aided with mid-Holocene coral identification. We are also grateful to the Central Analytical Research Facility at QUT for use of SEM equipment, Nicole Leonard who aided coral sampling and the two anonymous reviewers who improved the quality of this manuscript. Corals were collected under permits G03/9787.1 and G13/36379.1 from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. This study was supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grants DP1096184 and DP120101793, an Australian Wildlife Society University Grant and The University of Queensland.

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  1. School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, 4071, Australia

    J. Sadler & G. E. Webb

  2. School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia

    L. D. Nothdurft

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  1. J. Sadler
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Correspondence to J. Sadler.

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Communicated by Handling Editor Chris Perry

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338_2014_1228_MOESM1_ESM.eps

ESM Fig. 1: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the branch–inter-branch boundary in a) mid-Holocene and b) modern coral samples. Branch skeletal material is notably more thickened due to extensive secondary aragonite deposition, whereas the open matrix structure of the inter-branch region is less dense and appears to contain reduced thickening deposits. Note that the horizontal rung of the coenosteum does not extend into the corallite in ESM Fig. 1a (EPS 6180 kb)

338_2014_1228_MOESM2_ESM.eps

ESM Fig. 2: Inter-branch skeletal structures. Inter-branch corallite walls are a similar thickness to pillars and rungs, which can complicate identification. There appears to be a dominance of coenostial floors over plates, especially in the lower right-hand region of the figure (EPS 7340 kb)

338_2014_1228_MOESM3_ESM.eps

ESM Fig. 3: Dissepiments passing through the coral coenosteum. a) Dissepiments cross the coenosteum grid at varying angles and appear to be independent structures. Dashed box indicates the region displayed in b. b) Detailed section of the dissepiment underside revealing concentric growth structures (EPS 6246 kb)

338_2014_1228_MOESM4_ESM.eps

ESM Fig. 4: Formation of coenosteum rungs. Growth of horizontal rungs in the coenosteum framework may be a) unidirectional, b) bidirectional or c) interlocking (EPS 7673 kb)

338_2014_1228_MOESM5_ESM.eps

ESM Fig. 5: Thickening of coenostial rungs into floors. Formation of the coenostial floor is not clearly defined, but may be related to distally directed RADs that project into the open grid space from other rungs and are thickened by a thin layer of shingle deposits (EPS 3084 kb)

338_2014_1228_MOESM6_ESM.eps

ESM Fig. 6: Skeletal structures of a) massive Porites and b) Acropora inter-branch skeleton. The grid-like network of coenostial pillars and rungs within Acropora inter-branch skeleton is similar to that observed in the coenosteum of massive Porites, albeit at a large scale and with increased spacing between corallites (EPS 10283 kb)

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Sadler, J., Webb, G.E. & Nothdurft, L.D. Structure and palaeoenvironmental implications of inter-branch coenosteum-rich skeleton in corymbose Acropora species. Coral Reefs 34, 201–213 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-014-1228-0

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