Articles | Volume 22, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-7669-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-7669-2025
Research article
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05 Dec 2025
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 05 Dec 2025

The influence of irradiance and interspecific differences on δ11B, δ13C and elemental ratios in four coralline algae complexes from Aotearoa, New Zealand

Maxence Guillermic, Erik C. Krieger, Joyce Goh, Christopher E. Cornwall, and Robert A. Eagle

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Cited articles

Adey, H. W., Halfar, J., and Williams, B.: The Coralline Genus Clathromorphum Foslie emend. Adey, Biological, Physiological, and Ecological Factors Controlling Carbonate Production in an Arctic-Subarctic Climate Archive, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2019. 
Al-Horani, F. A., Al-Moghrabi, S. M., and De Beer, D.: The mechanism of calcification and its relation to photosynthesis and respiration in the scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis, Mar. Biol., 142, 419–426, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-002-0981-8, 2003. 
Anagnostou, E., Williams, B., Westfield, I., Foster, G. L., and Ries, J. B.: Calibration of the pH-δ11B and temperature-Mg/Li proxies in the long-lived high-latitude crustose coralline red alga Clathromorphum compactum via controlled laboratory experiments, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 254, 142–155, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.03.015, 2019. 
Anthony, K. R., Kline, D. I., Diaz-Pulido, G., Dove, S., and Hoegh-Guldberg, O.: Ocean acidification causes bleaching and productivity loss in coral reef builders, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 17442–17446, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0804478105, 2008. 
Bergstrom, E., Ordoñez, A., Ho, M., Hurd, C., Fry, B., and Diaz-Pulido, G.: Inorganic carbon uptake strategies in coralline algae: Plasticity across evolutionary lineages under ocean acidification and warming, Mar. Environ. Res., 161, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105107, 2020. 
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Co-editor-in-chief
The authors present very clear results from a well-designed experiment to show the impact of light on the isotopic composition of coralline algae, an important paleo-archive for high-latitude climate reconstructions. The results have implications for pH and temperature reconstructions and also shed light on biomineralization. The experimental set-up used is applicable on various other photosynthetic or photosymbiotic biocalcifiers and is therefore of wider interest to the biogeosciences audience.
Short summary
We address the impact of light on four complexes of coralline red algae using boron and carbon isotopic signatures. We show that the four complexes up-regulated their δ11B derived pHCF relative to seawater by 0.6 to 0.8 pH unit but pHCF was not directly impacted by light at the complex level. The differences in calcification between encrusting and branching complexes result from different photosynthetic regimes and carbon concentrating mechanisms, which would be inherent to morphologies.
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