COMPUTERIZED-TOMOGRAPHY AND SKELETAL DENSITY OF CORAL SKELETONS

In this paper I describe and discuss the use of medical X-ray computer ized tomography (CT) in the study of coral skeletons. CT generates X-r ay images along freely chosen sections through the skeleton and offers , as well, the possibility of density measurements based on X-ray atte nuation. This method has been applied to measure the skeletal density of the Caribbean reef-building coral Montastrea annularis, from Curaca o, Netherlands Antilles. The observed, non-linear increase of skeletal density with depth can be attributed to decreasing photosynthetic rat es with increasing water depth. A comparison with extension rate measu rements shows the inverse relationship between extension rate and skel etal density. CT proves to be a quick and non-destructive method to re veal growth structures (density banding) since it measures skeletal de nsity.