Monitoring of coral calcification rate and CO2 concentration at coral reef.

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(1) The most inportant question is whether corals uptake or release CO2 from sea water or from air" In this research Project, caltivation study of hermatypic corals revieled that coral can uptake the carbon dioxide from sea water effectively, awing to the coexistence of xoozanthella in the coral cells.(2) The rate of calcification by coral is controlled by the intensity of light intensity during daytime, which is proportional to that of primary production by zoothanthella. It is suggestited that calcification process and the photosynthesis process are kinked each other in the coral-zoothanthella ecosystems. The ratio of coral calcification rate to that of primary organic production(photosynthesis) is lower than unity(ca. 1/3), which is very important for the coral can uptake CO2 from sea water. Because calcification process itself is considered as CO2 release process,, on the other hand, photosynthesis is a CO2 uptake process.(3) The distribution and variation of CO2 concentration in coral reef was observed. Durnal variaton of CO2 was clearly observed, which is analogous to that of caltivation study. It is suggested that CO2 can also be uptaked by coral living organisms effectively. The remained problem is where the produced organic substances are trasported, deposited and the decomposed. It is generalized that CO2 problems in coral reef is analogous to that of open sea.(4) Monitoring system for CO2 concentration was established. This system can monitor automatically the CO2 variation both in air and in sea water.