MEPS prepress abstract   -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14661

ABSTRACT: The density banding patterns of the skeletons of massive reef-building corals can be used as historical records of their growth, life history, and environmental conditions. By analyzing these patterns, it is possible to estimate growth parameters, such as skeletal density, the extension rate, and calcification rate. The responses of stony corals to environmental stress depend on the amount of energy available for high-energetic metabolic processes, including skeletal calcification and sexual reproduction. The sex of a colony may also influence its calcification rate and resistance to environmental stressors like thermal anomalies. Here, we review and summarize the literature that focus on sex-associated differences in coral calcification rates between male and female colonies, and then we examine their differential responses to changes in SST in Porites panamensis, Porites lobata, Pavona gigantea, Siderastrea siderea, Montastrea cavernosa, Dichocoenia stokesi, and Dengrogyra cylindrus from the Caribbean and eastern Pacific regions through a reanalysis of published data. Differences in the calcification rate between sexes were due to the energy available for calcification and the strategy employed for skeletal growth. Female corals exhibited lower calcification rates than male colonies in all coral species. The results reveal that overall the calcification rate was negatively related to SST when the data of both sexes were pooled. However, when data was analyzed separately by sex, only the calcification rate of females was significantly dependent on SST. These findings highlight the implications for paleoenvironmental reconstructions using coral skeletons and the potential disparities in the populations of gonochoric corals.