Quantifying the δ15N trophic offset in a cold-water scleractinian coral (CWC): implications for the CWC diet and coral δ15N as a marine N cycle proxy

Mottram, Josie L.; Gothmann, Anne M.; Prokopenko, Maria G.; Cordova, Austin; Rollinson, Veronica; Dobkowski, Katie; Granger, Julie

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1071-2024

Articles | Volume 21, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1071-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1071-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 5

Research article

|

05 Mar 2024

Research article |

| 05 Mar 2024

Quantifying the δ¹⁵N trophic offset in a cold-water scleractinian coral (CWC): implications for the CWC diet and coral δ¹⁵N as a marine N cycle proxy

Josie L. Mottram, Anne M. Gothmann, Maria G. Prokopenko, Austin Cordova, Veronica Rollinson, Katie Dobkowski, and Julie Granger

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1071-2024-supplement

Data sets

Project: Collaborative Research: Refining the use of scleractinian cold-water coral skeleton-bound d15N as a proxy for marine N cycling Anne Gothmann, Julie Granger, Maria Prokopenko https://www.bco-dmo.org/project/893811

Download

Article (3144 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

Knowledge of ancient ocean N cycling can help illuminate past climate change. Using field and lab studies, this work ground-truths a promising proxy for marine N cycling, the N isotope composition of cold-water coral (CWC) skeletons. Our results estimate N turnover in CWC tissue; quantify the isotope effects between CWC tissue, diet, and skeleton; and suggest that CWCs possibly feed mainly on metazoan zooplankton, suggesting that the marine N proxy may be sensitive to the food web structure.