Corals

Avery Owen, Carley-Martin MacFarlane & Julia Urh

How Climate Affects Coral Fossils

Thickness of annual bands reveals climate

Ratio of heavy and light oxygen isotopes in growth bands

Balances of chemicals can be determined by temperature

More rainfall and higher temps correspond to high concentration in

light oxygen
Strontium and calcium

Dating coral through thorium or uranium traces (9)

(Amedee Coral, Richard Chesher)

Coral Shows Potential

Why is coral a useful proxy? (5)

Corals change chemical composition based on the water around

them, this helps infer which chemicals are present (5)

Determining ocean acidification

Changes in past climate mean changes in sea level - corals

are submerged and then near the surface (6)

Annual skeletal banding

Longevity of individual colonies
Very compatible with dating technology

Some coral species do not survive to depth changes

When more fragile species disappear, climate changes can be inferred

Reef health can tell about the time period

Corals explain the conditions: growth rings and animal burrows in fossils

Climate Predictions

When change occurs, corals (7)

Warming:
slow their rates of production
Ocean Acidification;
cannot absorb calcium carbonate
(stony skeleton dissolves)
Atmos. CO2 levels need to be kept below
370 ppm to avoid extreme bleaching
destruction and ecosystem havoc. (8)

Coral Bleaching ->

(Australian Government Great Barrier Reef Marine

Park Authority, 2009)

Time Span

https://paleoaerie.org/2015/
02/02/mystery-revealed-a-c
ommon-coral-in-arkansas/

Living coral changes rapidly in response to

its environment
In response to changes in temperature, sun exposure,
pH, etc., coral forms bands
These bands indicate seasonal and yearly
transitions

First coral fossils are from the Silurian

Period (417-443 mya) (2)
Daily formed bands could suggest the earth
rotated faster in the past

Coral from the Devonian and Permian periods show

distinctive daily bands, suggesting there were more
days in the years of their lifetimes based on season
transitions. This supports a tentative theory that the
Earths rotation is slowing and days are becoming
longer. (4)
Modern coral forms approximately 365 minor bands per
year (4)

Limitations

There are few places where coral grows

Corals are living things and can easily die

Detailed records of tropical, warm places

Scientists have found deep ocean corals
Still very new
Coral can only tell of what has happened in its life-span
Can be found in live and fossilized coral, however, the
fossilized will only tell the story of when it existed
Climate can be pieced together with lots of work on many different
samples.

Corals are also dying as the ocean is getting warmer and

more acidic.

Methods
Most coral animals live in
colonies that build massive, stony,
calcium carbonate (CaCO3 limestone)
skeletons over many years. The
coral animals live on the surface
of the skeleton and lay down layer
upon layer of calcium carbonate
beneath them over time. The layered
structures that corals deposit as
they grow have annual banding
patterns (3)
Photo: Hickerson/FGBNMS

Methods Cont.
The coral becomes lighter in the
summer due to faster growing and
darker in the winter. The
scientists will analyse the
different types of oxygen isotopes
in the calcium carbonate. This give
the scientist a year by year look
at the composition of the
atmosphere.

Photo: Jerry Wellington, Department of Biology, University of

Houston and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Paleoclimatology Program/Department of Commerce

Accuracy/Reliability

Coral bleaching due

to environmental
changes
https://oceanuts.wordpress.co
m/tag/coral-reefs/

Problems with this method of dating

Salinity of the water can alter ratios of isotopes in coral bands,

making temperature estimates less reliable (3)
Coral requires specific environmental conditions that, if changed for
a prolonged period, can make the sample less reliable. A few of these
conditions are:
(3)
Temperature must be warm, but not too hot
Tropical/subtropical oceans only
Clear, shallow water
Salinity
Nutrient availability
Open-System coral fossils are susceptible to chemical alterations due
to post-depositional diagenesis on and around the reefs
(10)
Post-depositional diagenesis: The physical and chemical
transformations of sedimentary deposits into rock

Sources
(1) "Climate Close-up: Coral Reefs." NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
(2) "Fossil Dating Fact Sheet." library.sandiegozoo.org. Sandiego Zoo, July 2009. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.

(3) Gardiner, Lisa. "How Do We Investigate Climates of the Past?" Windows to the Universe. N.p., 15
June 2009. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
<http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/CDcourses_investigate_climate.html>.
(4) Phillips, Perry G. Tidal Slowdown, Coral Aging, and the Age of Earth. 10 Mar.
2003. Web. 30 Sept. 2016. <http://www.ibri.org/Tracts/tidaltct.htm>
(5) Cobb, K., Lough, J., Tudhope, S. Annually-banded corals as climate proxies. NOAAs National
Centers for Environmental Information. June 2008. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.

Sources
(6) Coral reefs: Lessons from the past. Natural History Museum. N.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.
(7) How does climate change affect coral reefs? National Science Foundation: Teach Ocean Science.
N.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.
(8) Donnor, S.D. Coping with Commitment: Projected Thermal Stress on Coral Reefs under Different
Future Scenarios. June, 2009. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.
(9) Riebeek, Holli. Climate Close-up: Coral Reefs. NASA Earth Observatory. June, 2005. Web. 30 Sept.
2016.
(10) Scholz, Denis, Augusto Mangini, and Thomas Felis. "U-series Dating of Diagenetically Altered Fossil
Reef Corals." Earth and Planetary Science Letters 218.1-2 (2004): 163-78. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.