[1] New d 13 C data are presented from 10 coral skeletons collected from Florida and elsewhere in the Caribbean (Dominica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Belize). These corals range from 96 to 200 years in age and were collected between 1976 and 2002. The change in the d 13 C of the skeletons from these corals between 1900 and 1990 has been compared with 27 other published coral records from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The new data presented here make possible, for the first time, a global comparison of rates of change in the d 13 C value of coral skeletons. Of these records, 64% show a statistically significant (p < 0.05) decrease in d 13 C towards the modern day (23 out of 37). This decrease is attributable to the addition of anthropogenically derived CO 2 ( 13 C Suess effect) to the atmosphere. Between 1900 and 1990, the average rate of change of the d 13 C in all the coral skeletons living under open oceanic conditions is approximately −0.01‰ yr −1 . In the Atlantic Ocean the magnitude of the decrease since 1960,−0.019 yr −1 ±0.015‰, is essentially the same as the decrease in the d 13 C of atmospheric CO 2 and the d 13 C of the oceanic dissolved inorganic carbon (−0.023 to −0.029‰ yr −1 ), while in the Pacific and Indian Oceans the rate is more variable and significantly reduced (−0.007‰ yr −1 ±0.013). These data strongly support the notion that (i) the d 13 C of the atmosphere controls ambient d 13 C of the dissolved inorganic carbon which in turn is reflected in the coral skeletons, (ii) the rate of decline in the coral skeletons is higher in oceans with a greater anthropogenic CO 2 inventory in the surface oceans, (iii) the rate of d 13 C decline is accelerating. Superimposed on these secular variations are controls on the d 13 C in the skeleton governed by growth rate, insolation, and local water masses. Citation: Swart, P. K., L. Greer, B. E. Rosenheim, C. S. Moses, A. J. Waite, A. Winter, R. E. Dodge, and K. Helmle (2010), The 13 C Suess effect in scleractinian corals mirror changes in the anthropogenic CO 2 inventory of the surface oceans, Geophys.

[1] Monthly resolved, 41-year-long stable isotopic and elemental ratio time series were generated from two separate heads of Montastraea faveolata from Looe Key, Florida, to assess the fidelity of using geochemical variations in Montastraea, the dominant reef-building coral of the Atlantic, to reconstruct sea surface environmental conditions at this site. 18 O-sea surface temperature (SST) (R = À0.84) and Sr/Ca-SST (R = À0.86) calibration equations at Looe Key; however, these equations are different from previously published equations for Montastraea. Variations in growth parameters or kinetic effects are not sufficient to explain either the observed differences in the mean offset between Sr/Ca time series or the disagreement between previous calibrations and our calculated d

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ocean acidification causes declines in calcification rates of corals because of decreasing aragonite saturation states (Ω arag ). Recent evidence also indicates that increasing sea surface temperatures may have already reduced growth and calcification rates because of the stenothermic threshold of localized coral populations. Density banding in coral skeletons provides a record of growth over the coral's lifespan. Here we present coral extension, bulk density and calcification master chronologies from seven subtropical corals (Montastraea faveolata) located in the Florida Keys, usA with a 60-year common period, 1937-1996. Linear trends indicate that extension increased, density decreased and calcification remained stable while the most recent decade was not significantly different than decadal averages over the preceding 50 years for extension and calcification. The results suggest that growth rates in this species of subtropical coral have been tolerant to recent climatic changes up to the time of collection (1996).