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Coral Reef 'Glue' May Not Stick Under Climate Change

Jessica Marshall, Discovery News

"With less cement, reef structures appear to become more vulnerable to natural erosive processes," Manzello said.

The Panama reefs had intermediate levels of CO2 and cement, while the reefs in the Bahamas showed the least CO2 and the most cement. The team published their findings today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The findings of this study suggest that any new reef development and growth will be severely limited in an acidified ocean," Manzello added. "The mere existence of coral reefs as we know them is because corals are able to produce their skeletal materials at rates faster than they are ultimately eroded."

Ocean acidification may tip this balance, he said.

The study does not conclusively prove the link between acidification and cementation, because the upwelling in the Galapagos also brings with it colder water and extra nutrients, which could contribute to the observed cementation differences. But Manzello said that CO2 levels have a larger effect on how saturated with carbonate ions the seawater is.

These findings provide "one more piece of the puzzle that helps us understand reef building in a high CO2 world," said Ilsa Kuffner, a reef ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in St. Petersburg, Fla., who was not a part of the study.

"More and more evidence just keeps coming out that future coral reefs could be more susceptible to erosion, both mechanical and biological, because this cementation is not filling in those pores, and because the raw materials are not being built by corals and algae" she said.

How Stuff Works: Coral Reefs

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