caa a22 4500 445819561 CHVBK 20180317145239.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00338-011-0758-y doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00338-011-0758-y Coral skeletal carbon isotopes (δ13C and Δ14C) record the delivery of terrestrial carbon to the coastal waters of Puerto Rico [Elektronische Daten] [R. Moyer, A. Grottoli] Tropical small mountainous rivers deliver a poorly quantified, but potentially significant, amount of carbon to the world's oceans. However, few historical records of land-ocean carbon transfer exist for any region on Earth. Corals have the potential to provide such records, because they draw on dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) for calcification. In temperate systems, the stable- (δ13C) and radiocarbon (Δ14C) isotopes of coastal DIC are influenced by the δ13C and Δ14C of the DIC transported from adjacent rivers. A similar pattern should exist in tropical coastal DIC and hence coral skeletons. Here, δ13C and Δ14C measurements were made in a 56-year-old Montastraea faveolata coral growing ~1km from the mouth of the Rio Fajardo in eastern Puerto Rico. Additionally, the δ13C and Δ14C values of the DIC of the Rio Fajardo and its adjacent coastal waters were measured during two wet and dry seasons. Three major findings were observed: (1) synchronous depletions of both δ13C and Δ14C in the coral skeleton are annually coherent with the timing of peak river discharge, (2) riverine DIC was always more depleted in δ13C and Δ14C than seawater DIC, and (3) the correlation of δ13C and Δ14C was the same in both coral skeleton and the DIC of the river and coastal waters. These results indicate that coral skeletal δ13C and Δ14C are recording the delivery of riverine DIC to the coastal ocean. Thus, coral records could be used to develop proxies of historical land-ocean carbon flux for many tropical regions. Such information could be invaluable for understanding the role of tropical land-ocean carbon flux in the context of land-use change and global climate change. United States Geological Survey, 2011 Coral geochemistry nationallicence δ13C nationallicence Δ14C nationallicence Dissolved inorganic carbon nationallicence Puerto Rico nationallicence Land-ocean carbon flux nationallicence Moyer R. US Geological Survey, Saint Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, 600 Fourth Street South, 33701, Saint Petersburg, FL, USA aut Grottoli A. School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, 125 South Oval Mall, 43201, Columbus, OH, USA aut Coral Reefs Springer-Verlag 30/3(2011-09-01), 791-802 0722-4028 30:3<791 2011 30 338 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0758-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-011-0758-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Moyer R. US Geological Survey, Saint Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, 600 Fourth Street South, 33701, Saint Petersburg, FL, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Grottoli A. School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, 125 South Oval Mall, 43201, Columbus, OH, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Coral Reefs Springer-Verlag 30/3(2011-09-01), 791-802 0722-4028 30:3<791 2011 30 338 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer