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<p>Coral resilience is shaped by trophodynamic flexibility – the balance between photosymbiont-derived energy and feeding-based heterotrophy – yet quantifying this balance across taxa and through time remains difficult. Nitrogen (N) isotopes are a powerful tool to investigate trophic strategies, but their use requires information on local isotopic baselines. Here, we introduce&#xa0;the biomineral-bound N isotopes of crustose coralline algae (CCA) as an archive that closely tracks the N isotopic composition of the reef nitrate supply, making it a proxy for a reef’s isotopic baseline. Coupled N isotope measurements of co-occurring CCA, symbiont-bearing, and symbiont-barren corals further enable us to quantify a coral’s “trophic enrichment factor,” reflecting the efficiency of the internal N recycling between the coral and its photosymbionts. From this framework, we derive a Reliance on Symbionts Index (RSI) that captures taxonomic and regional variation in mixotrophy, enabling reconstruction of coral trophodynamics in modern and fossil reef systems.</p>

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Crustose coralline algae biomineral-bound nitrogen isotopes provide a baseline to reconstruct coral trophic strategies

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月10日

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  • Jonathan Jung,
  • Tanja Wald,
  • Alan D. Foreman,
  • Aaron L. Bieler,
  • Dorte Janussen,
  • Simone Moretti,
  • Nicolas N. Duprey,
  • Dario Marconi,
  • Carmen Pérez-Medina,
  • Aaron O’Dea,
  • Ralf Schiebel,
  • Jochen Halfar,
  • Cindy Fernández-García,
  • Madeline Berger,
  • Mary K. Donovan,
  • Amy E. Frazier,
  • Katie Cramer,
  • Gerald H. Haug,
  • Daniel M. Sigman,
  • Alfredo Martínez-García

摘要

Coral resilience is shaped by trophodynamic flexibility – the balance between photosymbiont-derived energy and feeding-based heterotrophy – yet quantifying this balance across taxa and through time remains difficult. Nitrogen (N) isotopes are a powerful tool to investigate trophic strategies, but their use requires information on local isotopic baselines. Here, we introduce the biomineral-bound N isotopes of crustose coralline algae (CCA) as an archive that closely tracks the N isotopic composition of the reef nitrate supply, making it a proxy for a reef’s isotopic baseline. Coupled N isotope measurements of co-occurring CCA, symbiont-bearing, and symbiont-barren corals further enable us to quantify a coral’s “trophic enrichment factor,” reflecting the efficiency of the internal N recycling between the coral and its photosymbionts. From this framework, we derive a Reliance on Symbionts Index (RSI) that captures taxonomic and regional variation in mixotrophy, enabling reconstruction of coral trophodynamics in modern and fossil reef systems.