Nice commentary on our coral reef metabolism paper!

A nice commentary piece was recently published in JGR-Oceans that highlights not only the key findings​ of our recent study on Dongsha Atoll, but also the important questions that emerged from our analyses. Yuichiro Takeshita did a great job in explaining that while we have a good understanding how community metabolism affects seawater chemistry, we have much less understanding of how seawater chemistry feeds back to influence community metabolism. This is a key question that we need to address if we are to accurately predict the sensitivity of coral reef communities to ocean acidification.

Our study had several surprising results. Net community calcification (NCC) rates on Dongsha Atoll were significantly higher than any other reef studied to date, despite its relatively high latitude, the relatively low pH of the surrounding open-ocean, and the high cover of algae on the reef. What factor is responsible for the exceptionally high NCC on Dongsha Atoll? There are several possibilities: (1) the largest internal waves in the world collide directly with the reef and may stimulate calcification by nourishing the reef with high-nutrient waters from below the thermocline, (2) the wide and shallow dimensions of the reef flat are conducive for large changes in carbonate chemistry and especially high daytime pH, (3) the coral community was recovering from a bleaching event and may have been exerting rapid calcification as a response, (4) low nighttime oxygen levels may limit the action of dissolving bioeroders. While the growing number of coral reef community metabolism studies is providing a testbed for the drivers of NCC, there are clearly many questions remaining and much work to be done!