[Coral-List] ICRS 2020 Session - Budgetary Break Down

[Tyler Cyronak]

Dear Colleagues,

We want to bring your attention to an ICRS 2020 session focused on 
calcium carbonate budgets in coral reef environments. If you are working 
in the arena of calcium carbonate budgets, dissolution, bioerosion, and 
accretion on modern and geological timescales please consider submitting 
to our session.

On behalf of all chairs,

Tyler and Ines


      Theme 3: Budgetary breakdown: Can reef geo-ecological functions
      persist in the Anthropocene?

The production and maintenance of complex calcium carbonate structure is 
perhaps the most critical function of a healthy coral reef ecosystem, 
providing habitat for numerous marine species and acting as a breakwater 
that dissipates wave energy and protects shorelines. The build-up of 
reef framework is driven by counteracting rates of calcium carbonate 
production (i.e., calcification) and calcium carbonate breakdown and 
loss (i.e., dissolution, bioerosion, off-reef transport). Recent work 
has shown that the accelerating pace of global anthropogenic change, 
including increases in seawater temperature, ocean acidification, and 
sea level rise will significantly impact the capacity of reefs to 
sustain positive calcium carbonate budgets and associated ecosystem 
services. Although the footprint of anthropogenic disturbance will be 
different across marine regions and habitats, the repercussions for many 
reef ecosystems may be broadly similar: i) progressively shifting 
towards net negative calcium carbonate budget states; ii) becoming 
structurally flatter; and iii) having lower vertical growth rates. To 
understand how this progression will impact reef geo-ecological 
functions it is critical to understand both impacts on the biological 
processes that drive carbonate production on the reef surface and the 
breakdown processes that affect the accumulation of the underlying reef 
structure. For this session we invite contributions that explore calcium 
carbonate budgets and coral reef geo-ecological functions in the 
Anthropocene and address questions pertaining to: i) how changes in the 
abundance of key calcifying groups impact habitat complexity and reef 
budgets, ii) how the changing intensity of destructive processes impact 
reef budgets, iii) how rates of net reef accretion are changing now and 
predictions for the future, and iv) the implications of these changes 
for the maintenance of geo-ecological ecosystem services provided by 
coral reefs. We also welcome contributions that discuss novel approaches 
to quantifying calcium carbonate budgets, reef accretion, carbonate 
break-down and reef geo-ecological functions.