Annual fluctuation in the stable carbon isotope ratio of coral skeletons: The relative intensities of kinetic and metabolic isotope effects

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope measurements of biogenic carbonate provide information for reconstructing past oceanic environments. In particular, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O ratios correlate with the temperature and salinity of seawater and ¹³C/¹²C is a proxy for dissolved inorganic carbon in seawater and symbiont photosynthesis. Here, we report ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O values for skeletons of corals (genus Porites) with various growth rates. In faster-growing corals, ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O showed out-of-phase annual fluctuations. In slower-growing corals, the isotopes fluctuated in phase. We developed a simple vector notation to show two patterns of ¹³C/¹²C annual fluctuation, each with a different offset in relation to ¹⁸O/¹⁶O annual fluctuation. The phase offset between ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O annual fluctuations depends on the relative intensities of kinetic isotope effects on calcification and metabolic isotope effects such as photosynthesis. This model might improve our ability to infer past climate and oceanographic conditions from coral skeletons.