Coral biomineralization

Abstract

Reef-building corals are distributed in the tropical and sub-tropical oceans and can be found as fossils in a significant fraction of the geologic record extending back to the middle Triassic. Their skeletons continuously grow up to one of the largest biological architectures on the earth, which support various marine lives in nutrient poor regions. Moreover, recent global warming gives corals another importance as powerful tool to reconstruct paleoclimate recorded in their skeletons with high-resolution. Understanding mechanism of coral biomineralization is crucial and common subject among interdisciplinary fields including geology, paleontology, biology, geochemistry, climatology and material science. However, exact mechanism of calcification processes is still poorly understood. For better understanding of coral biomineralization, we need to put structural, physiological and bio-geochemical information on very small space in calcification site. Most recently, significant progress and novel technique have been developing in several related fields. For example, microanalytical methods with nano- to sub-micronmeter scale, observations of nanometer size grains in coral microstructures, and a novel coral culture technique have been developed during last several years. By combining these new skills, it is now possible to observe biogeochemical signs within ultra fine structures in coral skeletons. Such new combined approaches hold the promise of yielding important new insights into the various biomineralization processes.