The paradox of neutral carbonate budgets on coral-dominated reefs
5 affiliations
- 1Biodiversity and Reef Conservation Laboratory, Unidad Académica de Sistemas Arrecifales, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 1 , Puerto Morelos, México
- 2Geography, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter 2 , Exeter, UK
- 3Programa de Investigación Espacial en Ambientes Costeros y Marinos, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UMDI-Sisal 3 , Sisal, Yucatán, México
- 4Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California 4 , Ensenada, México
- 5Laboratorio de Análisis Espacial de Zonas Costeras, Unidad Multidisciplinaria de Docencia e Investigación-Sisal, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 5 , Mérida, Yucatán, México
Abstract
Coral reefs deliver vital services via a complex three-dimensional framework sustained by the balance between calcium carbonate production and erosion, or the net carbonate budget state. In many tropical western Atlantic reefs, ecological decline has reduced carbonate production, yielding near-neutral or negative budgets. Yet some reefs retain high coral cover and, theoretically, should also have high net positive budgets, yet often show modest carbonate accumulation. We used the remote reef of Cayo Arenas in the Campeche Bank, Gulf of Mexico, to test whether in reefs under suboptimal (variable) environmental conditions, high coral production is offset by robust bioeroder communities, producing neutral budgets. At 14 sites, we quantified carbonate producers and bioeroders to estimate gross production, bioerosion and net budget states. Despite relatively high live coral cover, mean net carbonate budgets did not differ significantly from a neutral (zero) state, despite a positive net budget (0.7 ± 0.5 SE kg CaCO3 m−2 yr−1) and substantial site-to-site variability (range: −2.3 to 4.3 kg CaCO3 m−2 yr−1). Crucially, this neutrality arose not from depressed biological activity (as in degraded reefs) but from an active equilibrium: elevated carbonate production coupled with substantial bioerosion. These reefs, therefore, represent a contemporary, functional reef state in net stasis. Distinguishing active-neutral reefs, where both production and bioerosion are elevated, from impoverishment-neutral reefs, where both are suppressed, is critical for predicting reef trajectories under environmental change and for targeting management, although near-stasis emerging from high carbonate turnover can appear functionally intact yet operate with limited buffering capacity against net carbonate loss.
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BibTeX
@article{cabrerarivera2026paradox,
title = {{The paradox of neutral carbonate budgets on coral-dominated reefs}},
author = {Elizabeth Cabrera-Rivera and Didier de Bakker and Ana L. Molina-Hernández and Francisco Medellín-Maldonado and Rodolfo Rioja-Nieto and Alexis E. Medina Valmaseda and Esmeralda Pérez-Cervantes and Chris T. Perry and Lorenzo Álvarez-Filip},
journal = {Royal Society Open Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1098/rsos.260604},
url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/10/260604/483691/The-paradox-of-neutral-carbonate-budgets-on-coral},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The paradox of neutral carbonate budgets on coral-dominated reefs
AU - Elizabeth Cabrera-Rivera
AU - Didier de Bakker
AU - Ana L. Molina-Hernández
AU - Francisco Medellín-Maldonado
AU - Rodolfo Rioja-Nieto
AU - Alexis E. Medina Valmaseda
AU - Esmeralda Pérez-Cervantes
AU - Chris T. Perry
AU - Lorenzo Álvarez-Filip
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Royal Society Open Science
DO - 10.1098/rsos.260604
UR - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/10/260604/483691/The-paradox-of-neutral-carbonate-budgets-on-coral
AB - Coral reefs deliver vital services via a complex three-dimensional framework sustained by the balance between calcium carbonate production and erosion, or the net carbonate budget state. In many tropical western Atlantic reefs, ecological decline has reduced carbonate production, yielding near-neutral or negative budgets. Yet some reefs retain high coral cover and, theoretically, should also have high net positive budgets, yet often show modest carbonate accumulation. We used the remote reef of Cayo Arenas in the Campeche Bank, Gulf of Mexico, to test whether in reefs under suboptimal (variable) environmental conditions, high coral production is offset by robust bioeroder communities, producing neutral budgets. At 14 sites, we quantified carbonate producers and bioeroders to estimate gross production, bioerosion and net budget states. Despite relatively high live coral cover, mean net carbonate budgets did not differ significantly from a neutral (zero) state, despite a positive net budget (0.7 ± 0.5 SE kg CaCO3 m−2 yr−1) and substantial site-to-site variability (range: −2.3 to 4.3 kg CaCO3 m−2 yr−1). Crucially, this neutrality arose not from depressed biological activity (as in degraded reefs) but from an active equilibrium: elevated carbonate production coupled with substantial bioerosion. These reefs, therefore, represent a contemporary, functional reef state in net stasis. Distinguishing active-neutral reefs, where both production and bioerosion are elevated, from impoverishment-neutral reefs, where both are suppressed, is critical for predicting reef trajectories under environmental change and for targeting management, although near-stasis emerging from high carbonate turnover can appear functionally intact yet operate with limited buffering capacity against net carbonate loss.
SN - 2054-5703
ER -