Are Physical Properties Able to Differentiate Glacial and Interglacial Coral Identity?

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 325 to the Great Barrier Reef provides new information on past sea-level changes and better understanding of mechanisms driving glacial-interglacial cycles. Coral samples recovered during this expedition provide a deeper understanding of coral reef responses to environmental stresses. Inter- and intra-specific differences, growth rates, coral health, symbiotic algae and environmental conditions are all potential causes of differences in the density of coral skeletons and their distribution. Past changes in sea level and temperature can be related not only to isotope ratios but also to the presence of different communities of corals. Density changes in the coral composition can be detected using physical properties such as an increase in the calcium carbonate of a sample. De’ath et al. (2009) reported severe and sudden recent declines in calcification in Porites spp. corals in the Great Barrier Reef in the present that have not been observed over at least the last 400 years, and they attributed the decrease in calcification to changes in sea level, sea surface temperature (SST) and saturation of aragonite in the water column, all of which can limit the capacity of the corals to precipitate calcium carbonate. Variation in Sr/Ca can be related to SST, but different strains of symbiotic algae in the corals’ tissues can also be an important factor affecting skeletal Sr/Ca ratios. Such changes have never been tracked during previous glaciations, but the samples from Expedition 325 give the opportunity to explore their values during and since the last glacial maximum. Physical properties such as gamma ray density, electrical resistivity, and acoustic p-wave velocity can be related to characteristics of the marine sediments that, in turn, are indicative of the depositional environments. We performed a multivariate analysis that relates physical characteristics measured with a multi-sensor core logger (MSCL) and downhole geophysical logs with different coral community structures. The relation of these physical properties to coral identity can indicate variation in environmental characteristics that can be used to infer composition of an ecosystem or its ‘health’ status (e.g. estimates of calcification). The detection and relation of the physical variables with the community composition can help to create basic connections between the data that could be used as a proxy for the identification of sample type in future research. The variations in facies of the sediment are also correlated with physical properties obtained.