Lunar banding in the scleractinian coral Montastraea faveolata: Fine‐scale structure and influence of temperature

Abstract

[1] Lunar cycles play an important role in controlling biological rhythms in many organisms, including hermatypic corals. Coral spawning is correlated with environmental factors, including surface seawater temperature (SST) and lunar phase. Calcium carbonate skeletons of corals possess minute structures that, when viewed via X-radiography, produce high-density (HD) annual banding patterns. Some corals possess dissepiments that serve as the microstructural base for upward corallite growth. Here we report the results of detailed structural analysis of the skeleton of Montastraea faveolata (Scleractinia) (Ellis and Solander, 1786) and quantify the number of dissepiments that occur between HD bands, including interannual and intercorallite variability. Using a 30 year database, spanning from 1961 to 1991, we confirm earlier speculation by several authors that the frequencies of these microbands within a year is tightly linked to the lunar cycle. We also demonstrate that the frequency distribution of the number of these dissepiments per year is skewed to lower numbers. Extensive statistical analyses of long-term daily SST records (University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez) revealed that precipitation of dissepiments is suppressed in years of cooler-than-average seawater temperature. We propose that dissepiment deposition is driven primarily by lunar cycle and seawater temperature, particularly at lower temperatures, and banding is generally unaffected by normal or high temperatures. These fine-scale banding patterns are also strongly correlated with the number of lunar months between reproductive spawning events in average or warmer-than-average seawater temperature years. This microbanding may represent another proxy for high-resolution estimates of variance in marine palaeo-temperatures, particularly during cooler SST years.Citation: Winter, A., and P. W. Sammarco (2010), Lunar banding in the scleractinian coral Montastraea faveolata: Fine-scale structure and influence of temperature,

Growth of Heterostegina depressa under natural and laboratory conditions

“…Periods around 14 and 29 days most frequently showed the highest significance, possibly documenting the influence of tides and lunar months on foraminiferal growth. Dependency on moonlight cycles has already been demonstrated within many marine and terrestrial metazoan groups (Winter and Sammarco, 2010; Mercier et al, 2011) and also within planktonic foraminifera based on population dynamic studies (Bijma et al, 1990; Erez et al, 1991; Bijma et al, 1994; Lončarić et al, 2005). One explanation for this correlation between foraminiferal growth and moon phases (every ~29 days) could be that the endosymbiotic microalgae hosted by the LBF have higher photosynthetic rates during full moon periods.…”

Twentieth century warming of the tropical Atlantic captured by Sr‐U paleothermometry

“…It is likely that the difference we observed between mean annual temperature and mean growth temperature will have to be considered when conducting Sr‐U thermometry (or any thermometry) using corals from high‐latitude reef sites, or anywhere where coral skeletal growth shuts down for some period of the year, or during stressful events such as bleaching. One way to check whether growth occurs throughout the year would be by counting subannual growth increments such as dissepiments [e.g., Winter and Sammarco , ].…”

Mid‐Holocene, Coral‐Based Sea Surface Temperatures in the Western Tropical Atlantic

“…We checked these estimates against an independent estimate of growth: dissepiment spacing (Figure ). Dissepiments are fine horizontal plates accreted by the coral once a month (DeCarlo & Cohen, ; Winter & Sammarco, ). Thus, 12 to 13 dissepiments represent 1 year of growth, and the distance between successive dissepiments reflects the monthly extension of the coral.…”