Australian Institute of Marine Science, University of Western Australia Oceans Institute, Crawley, Australia.
Science. 2012 Feb 3;335(6068):593-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1214570.
Anthropogenic increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide lead to warmer sea surface temperatures and altered ocean chemistry. Experimental evidence suggests that coral calcification decreases as aragonite saturation drops but increases as temperatures rise toward thresholds optimal for coral growth. In situ studies have documented alarming recent declines in calcification rates on several tropical coral reef ecosystems. We show there is no widespread pattern of consistent decline in calcification rates of massive Porites during the 20th century on reefs spanning an 11° latitudinal range in the southeast Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Increasing calcification rates on the high-latitude reefs contrast with the downward trajectory reported for corals on Australia's Great Barrier Reef and provide additional evidence that recent changes in coral calcification are responses to temperature rather than ocean acidification.
人为增加大气二氧化碳会导致海洋表面温度升高和海洋化学性质改变。实验证据表明，当方解石饱和度下降时，珊瑚钙化作用会减少，但当温度升高到最适合珊瑚生长的阈值时，钙化作用会增加。现场研究记录了热带珊瑚礁生态系统中最近有几种珊瑚钙化率惊人的下降。我们表明，在 20 世纪，在澳大利亚西部东南印度洋横跨 11°纬度范围的珊瑚礁上，巨石珊瑚的钙化率并没有普遍一致下降的趋势。高纬度珊瑚礁的钙化率增加与澳大利亚大堡礁珊瑚报告的下降轨迹形成对比，这进一步证明了最近珊瑚钙化的变化是对温度的反应，而不是海洋酸化的反应。
