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The resilience of coral reefs in oligotrophic, (sub)tropical oceans is largely due to the symbiotic relationship between scleractinian corals and Symbiodiniaceae algae, which enables efficient internal nutrient recycling. Investigating the history of this coral symbiosis can provide insights into its role in sustaining the health of both present and future coral reefs. The isotopic composition of organic nitrogen (¹⁵N/¹⁴N or δ¹⁵N) bound within coral skeletons has been utilized to trace the existence of symbiosis in fossil corals, suggesting that coral symbiosis dates back to at least 210 million years ago. The basis of this proxy is that symbiotic corals are expected to exhibit lower δ¹⁵N compared to their non-symbiotic (aposymbiotic) counterparts within the same environments, owing to internal nitrogen recycling between the coral host and algal symbiont, and reduced leakage of low-δ¹⁵N ammonium into seawater. However, this hypothesis has not been adequately tested in contemporary settings. In a laboratory experiment, we examined the δ¹⁵N differences between the symbiotic and aposymbiotic branches within the same genetic backgrounds of the facultatively symbiotic coralOculina arbusculaunder well-fed conditions. Across five different genotypes in two separate experiments, symbiotic branches consistently showed lower δ¹⁵N than their aposymbiotic counterparts. These findings corroborate the use of δ¹⁵N as a proxy for identifying coral symbiosis in the past, particularly when multiple species of corals coexisted in the same environments. 

Nitrogen isotope ratios in fossil teeth place extinct megatooth sharks at the top of the marine food web. 

Fly ash—the residuum of coal burning—contains a considerable amount of fossilized particulate organic carbon (FOC ash ) that remains after high-temperature combustion. Fly ash leaks into natural environments and participates in the contemporary carbon cycle, but its reactivity and flux remained poorly understood. We characterized FOC ash in the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) basin, China, and quantified the riverine FOC ash fluxes. Using Raman spectral analysis, ramped pyrolysis oxidation, and chemical oxidation, we found that FOC ash is highly recalcitrant and unreactive, whereas shale-derived FOC (FOC rock ) was much more labile and easily oxidized. By combining mass balance calculations and other estimates of fly ash input to rivers, we estimated that the flux of FOC ash carried by the Chang Jiang was 0.21 to 0.42 Mt C⋅y −1 in 2007 to 2008—an amount equivalent to 37 to 72% of the total riverine FOC export. We attributed such high flux to the combination of increasing coal combustion that enhances FOC ash production and the massive construction of dams in the basin that reduces the flux of FOC rock eroded from upstream mountainous areas. Using global ash data, a first-order estimate suggests that FOC ash makes up to 16% of the present-day global riverine FOC flux to the oceans. This reflects a substantial impact of anthropogenic activities on the fluxes and burial of fossil organic carbon that has been made less reactive than the rocks from which it was derived. 

Abstract Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is the dominant form of fixed nitrogen in most low and middle latitude ocean surface waters. Here, we report measurements of DON isotopic composition (δ¹⁵N) from the west South China Sea (SCS), with the goal of providing new insight into DON cycling. The concentration of DON in the surface ocean is correlated (r = 0.70,p < 0.0001) with chlorophyllaconcentration, indicating DON production in these surface waters. The concentration and δ¹⁵N of DON fall in a relatively narrow range in the surface ocean (4.6 ± 0.1 μM and 4.3 ± 0.2‰ vs. air, respectively; ±SD), similar to other ocean regions. The mean DON δ¹⁵N above 50 m (4.5 ± 0.3‰) is similar to the δ¹⁵N of nitrate in the “shallow subsurface” (i.e., immediately below the euphotic zone; 4.6 ± 0.2‰) but is higher than the δ¹⁵N of suspended particles in the surface ocean (~2.3‰). This set of isotopic relationships has been observed previously (e.g., in the oligotrophic North Atlantic and North Pacific) and can be explained by the cycling of N between particulate organic nitrogen (PON), DON, and ammonium, in which an isotope effect associated with DON degradation preferentially concentrates¹⁵N in DON. Consistent with this view, a negative correlation (r = 0.70) between the concentration and the δ¹⁵N of DON is observed in the upper 75 m, suggesting an isotope effect of ~4.9 ± 0.4‰ for DON degradation. Comparing the DON δ¹⁵N data from the SCS with other regions, we find that the δ¹⁵N difference between euphotic zone DON and shallow subsurface nitrate δ¹⁵N (Δδ¹⁵N_(DON‐NO3)) rises from ocean regions of inferred net DON production to regions of net DON consumption, with the SCS representing an intermediate case.