Low Florida coral calcification rates in the Plio-Pleistocene

Brachert, Thomas C.; Reuter, Markus; Krüger, Stefan; Klaus, James S.; Helmle, Kevin; Lough, Janice M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4513-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4513-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4513-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 15

Research article

|

12 Aug 2016

Research article |

| 12 Aug 2016

Low Florida coral calcification rates in the Plio-Pleistocene

Thomas C. Brachert, Markus Reuter, Stefan Krüger, James S. Klaus, Kevin Helmle, and Janice M. Lough

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Final revised paper (published on 12 Aug 2016)
Preprint (discussion started on 21 Dec 2015)
Companion paper

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C9106: 'Review of BGD-12-20515-2015', Anonymous Referee #1, 15 Jan 2016
- AC C10160: 'Author comment on review 1', Thomas Brachert, 14 Mar 2016
RC C9197: 'Review BGD-12-20515-2015: “Low Florida coral calcification rates in the Plio-Pleistocene” by Brachert and coworkers.', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Jan 2016
- AC C10164: 'Reply to review 2', Thomas Brachert, 14 Mar 2016
RC C9272: 'Review of Brachert et al.', Anonymous Referee #3, 19 Jan 2016
- AC C10166: 'Reply to review 3', Thomas Brachert, 14 Mar 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (14 Mar 2016) by Tina Treude

AR by Thomas Brachert on behalf of the Authors (20 Apr 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (20 Apr 2016) by Tina Treude

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (04 May 2016)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (11 May 2016)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Review of revised manuscript BG-2015-572-manuscript-version3

This manuscript represents an interesting description of coral calcification during the Plio-Pleistocene. While it overlaps with previous work, it is an important advance in our understanding of coral growth during past environmental conditions. I thank the authors for considering the three reviewers’ comments and for making several of the recommended changes. However, there are still revisions that the authors can incorporate to make this a stronger description of their study.

Notes for the Authors:
1. The authors added a reference (Bocker, 2014) to geochemical evidence for sufficient preservation of one sample but not similar evidence for the other samples. The scale of the micrographs in Figure 2 relative to the density bands shown in Figure 3 does not provide strong enough evidence of preservation. I would like to see geochemical evidence for all samples, but defer to the decision of the Editor.
2. Stable isotope methods should not be included in this manuscript. As the data are presented in the companion paper, the authors should simply reference that paper in the discussion and not try to include the data from a previous pub as a result in this MS.
3. I continue to disagree with the authors that this manuscript represents the ‘first record of calcification rates from fossil corals’. Lough & Cooper 2011 do not represent the definitive definition of calcification rate. Perhaps this work represents the first record of calcification rate under this definition. But there are certainly other definitions of that rate widely used in the literature.
4. The authors could be clearer about the novel nature of this manuscript as separate from their BGS companion paper while still including discussion of, for example, high pCO2 vs upwelling and low temps, that were described in that paper.
5. Tables 2 and 3. The authors could indeed clarify the sources of coral data in these two tables without major typesetting issues. Superscripted numbers detailed under each table would sufficiently take care of this.

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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (24 May 2016) by Tina Treude

AR by Thomas Brachert on behalf of the Authors (24 Jun 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (20 Jul 2016) by Tina Treude

AR by Thomas Brachert on behalf of the Authors (25 Jul 2016) Manuscript

Short summary

We have analysed the rate of calcification of fossil reef corals. These measurements are important, because the rate of formation of the skeleton depends on the physical environment in which the corals lived. The rates of skeletal calcification of the fossils were approximately 50 % lower than they are in extant reef corals. This is a likely effect of high water temperatures and/or low carbonate saturation of the water – factors that will also affect coral growth by future global warming.