Nancy G. Prouty

Deep‐sea coral record of human impact on watershed quality in the Mississippi River Basin

One of the greatest drivers of historical nutrient and sediment transport into the Gulf of Mexico is the unprecedented scale and intensity of land use change in the Mississippi River Basin. These landscape changes are linked to enhanced fluxes of carbon and nitrogen pollution from the Mississippi River, and persistent eutrophication and hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Increased terrestrial runoff is one hypothesis for recent enrichment in bulk nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values, a tracer for nutrient source, observed in a Gulf of Mexico deep-sea coral record. However, unambiguously linking anthropogenic land use change to whole scale shifts in downstream Gulf of Mexico biogeochemical cycles is difficult. Here we present a novel approach, coupling a new tracer of agro-industrialization to a multiproxy record of nutrient loading in long-lived deep-sea corals collected in the Gulf of Mexico. We found that coral bulk δ15N values are enriched over the last 150–200 years relative to the last millennia, and compound-specific amino acid δ15N data indicate a strong increase in baseline δ15N of nitrate as the primary cause. Coral rhenium (Re) values are also strongly elevated during this period, suggesting that 34% of Re is of anthropogenic origin, consistent with Re enrichment in major world rivers. However, there are no pre-anthropogenic measurements of Re to confirm this observation. For the first time, an unprecedented record of natural and anthropogenic Re variability is documented through coral Re records. Taken together, these novel proxies link upstream changes in water quality to impacts on the deep-sea coral ecosystem.

Vulnerability of Coral Reefs to Bioerosion From Land-Based Sources of Pollution

Ocean acidification (OA), the gradual decline in ocean pH and [ CO32−] caused by rising levels of atmospheric CO2, poses a significant threat to coral reef ecosystems, depressing rates of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) production, and enhancing rates of bioerosion and dissolution. As ocean pH and [ CO32−] decline globally, there is increasing emphasis on managing local stressors that can exacerbate the vulnerability of coral reefs to the effects of OA. We show that sustained, nutrient rich, lower pH submarine groundwater discharging onto nearshore coral reefs off west Maui lowers the pH of seawater and exposes corals to nitrate concentrations 50 times higher than ambient. Rates of coral calcification are substantially decreased, and rates of bioerosion are orders of magnitude higher than those observed in coral cores collected in the Pacific under equivalent low pH conditions but living in oligotrophic waters. Heavier coral nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values pinpoint not only site-specific eutrophication, but also a sewage nitrogen source enriched in 15N. Our results show that eutrophication of reef seawater by land-based sources of pollution can magnify the effects of OA through nutrient driven-bioerosion. These conditions could contribute to the collapse of coastal coral reef ecosystems sooner than current projections predict based only on ocean acidification.

Uptake and distribution of organo-iodine in deep-sea corals

Understanding iodine concentration, transport, and bioavailability is essential in evaluating iodines impact to the environment and its effectiveness as an environmental biogeotracer. While iodine and its radionuclides have proven to be important tracers in geologic and biologic studies, little is known about transport of this element to the deep sea and subsequent uptake in deep-sea coral habitats. Results presented here on deep-sea black coral iodine speciation and iodine isotope variability provides key information on iodine behavior in natural and anthropogenic environments, and its geochemical pathway in the Gulf of Mexico. Organo-iodine is the dominant iodine species in the black corals, demonstrating that binding of iodine to organic matter plays an important role in the transport and transfer of iodine to the deep-sea corals. The identification of growth bands captured in high-resolution scanning electron images (SEM) with synchronous peaks in iodine variability suggest that riverine delivery of terrestrial-derived organo-iodine is the most plausible explanation to account for annual periodicity in the deep-sea coral geochemistry. Whereas previous studies have suggested the presence of annual growth rings in deep-sea corals, this present study provides a mechanism to explain the formation of annual growth bands. Furthermore, deep-sea coral ages based on iodine peak counts agree well with those ages derived from radiocarbon (14C) measurements. These results hold promise for developing chronologies independent of 14C dating, which is an essential component in constraining reservoir ages and using radiocarbon as a tracer of ocean circulation. Furthermore, the presence of enriched 129I/127I ratios during the most recent period of skeleton growth is linked to nuclear weapons testing during the 1960s. The sensitivity of the coral skeleton to record changes in surface water 129I composition provides further evidence that iodine composition and isotope variability captured in proteinaceous deep-sea corals is a promising geochronometer as well as an emerging tracer for continental material flux.

The use of passive membrane samplers to assess organic contaminant inputs at five coastal sites in west Maui, Hawaii

Five passive membrane samplers were deployed for 28 continuous days at select sites along and near the west Maui coastline to assess organic compounds and contaminant inputs to diverse, shallow coral reef ecosystems. Daily and weekly fluctuations in such inputs were captured on the membranes using integrative sampling. The distribution of organic compounds observed at these five coastal sites showed considerable variation; with high concentrations of terrestrially sourced organic compounds such as C29 sterols and high molecular weight nalkanes at the strongly groundwater-influenced Kahekili vent site. In comparison, the coastal sites were presumably influenced more by seasonal surface and stream water runoff and therefore had marine-sourced organic compounds and fewer pharmaceuticals and personal care products. The direct correlation to upstream land-use practices was not obvious and may require additional wet-season sampling. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products as well as flame retardants were detected at all sites, and the Kahekili vent site had the highest number of detections. Planned future work must also determine the organic compound and contaminant concentrations adsorbed onto water column particulate matter, because it may also be an important vector for contaminant transport to coral reef ecosystems. The impact of contaminants per individual (such as fecundity and metabolism) as well as per community (such as species abundance and diversity) is necessary for an accurate assessment of environmental stress. Results presented herein provide current contaminant inputs to select nearshore environments along the west Maui coastline captured during the dry season, and they can be useful to aid potential future evaluations and (or) comparisons. Introduction Many coral reefs offshore of the main Hawaiian Islands have been in decline since the 1990s, primarily related to excess nutrient loading, algal bloom, shoreline development, and agricultural runoff (Friedlander and others, 2008; Dailer and others, 2012). Long-term monitoring of coral reefs along the west Maui coastline, Hawaii, has shown that the coral cover has declined by as much as 50 percent in some highly impacted areas (Bruno and Selig, 2007). Runoff and associated transport of terrestrial inorganic constituents and organic compounds has impacted nearshore ecosystems, including coral reefs, and the deleterious effects may last longer than previously suggested (Morrison and others, 2013; Brodie and others, 2012; Fabricius, 2005; Anthony and others, 2004). To assess surfaceand groundwater-derived organic loading rates along the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) west Maui priority watersheds study area, a passive membrane sampling study was conducted at five sites along the west Maui coast, some