ABSTRACT
The motivation for studying biogeochemical cycles of coral reefs has been to understand how these marine ecosystems maintain high carbon production, turnover and deposition of calcium carbonate in low-nutrient oceans. A major obstacle in advancing coral reef biogeochemistry has been that biogeochemical rates are normalized in different ways, and these rates are dependent on the scale of measurement. Coral reefs are living structures that biogenically produce calcium carbonate; they maintain themselves at sea-level against the destructive forces of waves. Dissolved organic carbon is ubiquitous in ambient waters over coral reefs and typically occurs at concentrations much greater than particulate organic matter. The hydraulically driven transport of water into, through, and out-of coral reef frameworks has long been hypothesized as the primary mechanism providing particulate organic matter to drive framework diagenesis. Macrophytes, corals, and reef surfaces with turf algae have high potentials for assimilation of nutrients.
