A new estimate of global reefal carbonate production including the fore-reefs

Reefal carbonate production is an important component of the carbon cycle. In this paper, the methods for assessing this production are compared. Data on framework-dominated and biodetritus-dominated fore-reefs are integrated for new estimates of the global reef area (304,000–345,000 km2), of the production in reef-flat to fore-reef transects (average 0.9–2.7 kg m-2 year-1), and of the production in the worldʹs reefs (0.65–0.83 Gt year-1). These estimates are the first to incorporate the recently published global reef-flat area and to integrate fore-reef data from all reef provinces. The amount of reefal carbonate production at the local, regional, and even more at the global scale remains poorly constrained because of few data.