Coral calcifying fluid aragonite saturation states derived from Raman spectroscopy

DeCarlo, Thomas M.; D'Olivo, Juan P.; Foster, Taryn; Holcomb, Michael; Becker, Thomas; McCulloch, Malcolm T.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5253-2017

Articles | Volume 14, issue 22

Biogeosciences, 14, 5253–5269, 2017

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5253-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Biogeosciences, 14, 5253–5269, 2017

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5253-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 22

Research article 24 Nov 2017

Research article | 24 Nov 2017

Coral calcifying fluid aragonite saturation states derived from Raman spectroscopy

Thomas M. DeCarlo et al.

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Final revised paper (published on 24 Nov 2017)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 29 Jun 2017)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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- Supplement

RC1: 'referee comment', Jan Fietzke, 23 Jul 2017
- AC1: 'Response to Referee Comment #1', Thomas DeCarlo, 28 Jul 2017
RC2: 'referee 2 comment', Anonymous Referee #2, 15 Sep 2017
- AC2: 'Response to Referee Comment #2', Thomas DeCarlo, 26 Sep 2017

Peer-review completion

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

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (15 Sep 2017) by Lennart de Nooijer

AR by Thomas DeCarlo on behalf of the Authors (26 Sep 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (02 Oct 2017) by Lennart de Nooijer

RR by Jan Fietzke (06 Oct 2017)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (16 Oct 2017) by Lennart de Nooijer

Dear Dr. DeCarlo and co-authors,

Thank you for uploading the revised version of your manuscript. In general, you have uploaded a considerably revised manuscript in which most issues raised by the reviewers have been addressed. Some minor issues remain that need to be corrected before this manuscript can be accepted for publication in Biogeosciences. In addition, I would like to ask you to have a critical look at your title: perhaps is does not (100%) reflect the content anymore.

Sincerely,

Lennart de Nooijer

Page 18, line 16-18: “Finally, our analysis indicates that the Raman ν1 FWHM is an accurate proxy of fluid ΩAr, making it a complementary approach to B/Ca and δ11B because combining information from the two approaches allows calculating the full carbonate system via [CO32−], pH and now importantly [Ca2+] .”. The authors should be careful when making these kind of statements. The results from the inorganic precipitation experiments do not justify this interpretation promoted by the authors. In my opinion, it is currently a potential proxy for fluid ΩAr in inorganic aragonite, which can be used to develop a way to indirectly measure ΩAr of the calcification fluid of aragonite producing organisms, like corals.
Fig. 4. The authors seem to neglect the distinct offset between their observations and the ones made by Alkhatib and Eisenhauer (2017, GCA). How can you explain this offset?

Minor comments:
Please make change solid Mg/Ca to Mg/Casolid or Mg/Caaragonite to avoid confusion with media/seawater Mg/Ca.
Throughout the manuscript: pCO2 instead of pCO2. (i.e. please italicize the “p”). Also in the references please check pCO2 and CO2 (example page 25, lines 16 and 24).

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AR by Thomas DeCarlo on behalf of the Authors (17 Oct 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (23 Oct 2017) by Lennart de Nooijer

Short summary

We present a new technique to quantify the chemical conditions under which corals build their skeletons by analysing them with lasers at a very fine resolution, down to 1/100th the width of a human hair. Our first applications to laboratory-cultured and wild corals demonstrates the complex interplay among seawater conditions (temperature and acidity), calcifying fluid chemistry, and bulk skeleton accretion, which will define the sensitivity of coral calcification to 21st century climate change.