Needle-like grains across growth lines in the coral skeleton of Porites lobata

Abstract

The skeletal texture and crystal morphology of the massive reef-building coral Porites lobata were observed from the nano- to micrometer scale using an analytical transmission electron microscope (ATEM). The skeletal texture consists of centers of calcification (COCs) and fiber area. Fiber areas contain bundles of needle-like aragonite crystals that are elongated along the crystallographic c-axis and are several hundred nanometers to one micrometer in width and several micrometers in length. The size distribution of aragonite crystals is relatively homogeneous in the fibers. Growth lines are observed sub-perpendicular to the direction of aragonite growth. These growth lines occur in 1-2 μm intervals and reflect a periodic contrast in the thickness of an ion-spattered sample and pass through the interior of some aragonite crystals. These observations suggest that the medium filled in the calcification space maintains a CaCO₃-supersaturated state during fiber growth and that a physical change occurs periodically during the aragonite crystals of the fiber area.