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Carbonate production of the coral Cladocora caespitosa (Linnaeus, 1767) in the Adriatic Sea

The Cladocora caespitosa (Linnaeus, 1767) is a common colonial scleractinian coral in the Mediterranean Sea. It occurs naturally with numerous endosymbiotic and photosynthetic zooxanthellae from genus Symbiodinium. Coral branches build big irregular masses which may fuse into banks several hundred meters wide. These are extremely interesting formations since they are unique in the Mediterranean for their true reef-coral origin and their relation with true coral banks of tropical seas. Laboratory and in situ measurements of volume, skeleton weight, surface and number of corallites per colony, together with mean annual growth rates, allowed for the estimation of colony biomass, skeletal density and secondary organic (polyp) and inorganic (CaCO3) production from 15 stations with C. caespitosa colonies or beds from 6 to 36 m depth. The mean colony biomass varied between 0.43 and 1.27 kg dw/m2, corresponding to a skeletal density between 1.08 to 1.53 g CaCO3/cm3. Organic secondary production was 279.9 - 603.7 g dw of polyps /m2y, while inorganic (mineral) production was 0.03 - 2.73 kg CaCO3/m2y. With the potential net production of calcium carbonate up to 14.3 kg/m2year, coral C. caespitosa is one of the major constructional marine organisms in the Mediterranean Sea. These results seem to indicate that its net production of calcium carbonate is in the same range of most tropical hermatypic corals and proves that the coral skeletons are the witnesses of sea temperature variations in global climatic change. The another aim of this study is to raise a greater interest for Mediterranean bioconstructions, in an effort to preserve and manage many interesting and sometimes beautiful sites which, in many cases, are strongly menaced by human activities and require urgent protection.

Cladocora caespitosa; coral; skeleton; carbonate production

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