COMPUTERIZED-TOMOGRAPHY AND OXYGEN STABLE ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF PORITES LUTEA SKELETON AT MURUROA (FRENCH-POLYNESIA) - APPLICATION TO THESTUDY OF SOLAR-RADIATION INFLUENCE ON ANNUAL CORAL GROWTH
F. Bessat et al., COMPUTERIZED-TOMOGRAPHY AND OXYGEN STABLE ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF PORITES LUTEA SKELETON AT MURUROA (FRENCH-POLYNESIA) - APPLICATION TO THESTUDY OF SOLAR-RADIATION INFLUENCE ON ANNUAL CORAL GROWTH, Comptes rendus de l'Academie des sciences. Serie 3, Sciences de la vie, 320(8), 1997, pp. 659-665
We have analysed samples of the scleractinian coral Porites lutea from
Mururoa by computerized tomography, a method that appears more reliab
le than classic measurements of coral density. We correlate density me
asurements with oxygen isotopic composition, and then with climatologi
cal parameters (sea surface temperature and solar radiation). Wk demon
strate that at the Mururoa site, solar radiation is the major factor i
nfluencing the density pattern of the coral skeleton (i.e. calcificati
on). However, the relationship between the density pattern and radiati
on is neither simple nor linear.