Question

You can determine the rate of calcification at any given carbonate ion concentration as follows: draw a vertical line up from the x-axis at that concentration value until it intersects the red linear regression line; then draw a horizontal line from the intersection over to the y-axis to see what the calcification rate is at that carbonate ion concentration. if the seawater carbonate ion (co3 2-) concentration is 270 µmol/kg,

a.what is the approximate rate of calcification, and
b.approximately how many days would it take 1 square meter of reef to accumulate 30 mmol of calcium carbonate (caco3)

Answer 1

Using the graph, we go up from the x-axis value of 270 to the point where we cut the line. From the point of intersection, we check the value on the y-axis. This turns out to be 20 mmol of calcium carbonate per meter squared per day.

Next, we may determine the time taken for 30 mmol of calcium carbonate to be deposited using:

deposition = rate * area * time
30 = 20 * 1 * time
time = 1.5 days

It will take 1.5 days for 30 mmol of calcium carbonate to be deposited at the given rate.