[1] Whereas the oxygen isotope ratio of the coral skeleton is used for reconstruction of past information on seawater, the carbon isotope ratio is considered a proxy for physiological processes, principally photosynthesis and respiration. However, the fractionation of carbon isotopes in biogenic carbonate such as coral skeleton is still unclear. We conducted a long-term culture experiment of Porites spp. corals at different light dosages (light intensity, 100, 300, or 500 mmol m À2 s À1 ; daily light period, 10 or 12 h) at 25 ± 0.6°C to examine the contribution of photosynthetic activity to skeletal carbon isotope composition. Corals were grown in sand-filtered seawater and not fed; thus, they subsisted from photosynthesis of symbiotic algae. As the daily dose of photosynthetically active radiation increased, the rate of annual extension also increased. Mean isotope compositions shifted; the carbon isotope compositions (d 13 C) became heavier and the oxygen isotope compositions (d 18 O) became lighter at higher radiation dose. Skeletal d 18 O decrease coincided with increasing skeletal growth rate, indicating the influence of so-called kinetic isotope effects. The observed d 13 C increase should be subject to both kinetic and metabolic isotope effects, with the latter reflecting skeletal d 13 C enrichment due to photosynthesis by symbiotic algae. Using a vector approach in the d 13 C-d 18 O plane, we discriminated between kinetic and metabolic isotope effects on d 13 C. The calculated d 13 C changes from metabolic isotope effects were light dose dependent. The d 13 C fractionation curve related to metabolic isotope effects is very similar to the photosynthesis-irradiance curve, indicating the direct contribution of photosynthetic activity to metabolic isotope effects. In contrast, d 13 C fractionation related to kinetic isotope effects gradually increased as the growth rate increased. Our experiment demonstrated that the kinetic and metabolic isotope effects in coral skeleton were successfully differentiated.Citation: Omata, T., A. Suzuki, T. Sato, K. Minoshima, E. Nomaru, A. Murakami, S. Murayama, H. Kawahata, and T. Maruyama (2008), Effect of photosynthetic light dosage on carbon isotope composition in the coral skeleton: Long-term culture of Porites spp.,
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