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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-3519</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Precision measurement of &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;234&lt;/sup&gt;U in annually banded tropical corals</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Greve</surname>
<given-names>Sahra</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Frank</surname>
<given-names>Norbert</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0416-9546</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Warken</surname>
<given-names>Sophie</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3339-1488</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Montagna</surname>
<given-names>Paolo</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Winter</surname>
<given-names>Amos</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rico-Esenaro</surname>
<given-names>Serguei Damián</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Carricart-Ganivet</surname>
<given-names>Juan P.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7266-8905</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sanchez-Cabeza</surname>
<given-names>Joan-Albert</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3540-1168</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ruiz-Fernández</surname>
<given-names>Ana Carolina</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Alonso-Hernández</surname>
<given-names>Carlos</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gomez–Batista</surname>
<given-names>Miguel</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Taviani</surname>
<given-names>Marco</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hetzinger</surname>
<given-names>Steffen</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5616-4977</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff12">
<sup>12</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Environmental Physics, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Earth Science, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Polar Sciences, ISP-CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Stazione Zoologica ‘Anton Dohrn’, Naples, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Department of Earth and Environmental Systems, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Laboratorio de Esclerocronología de Corales Arrecifales, Unidad Académica de Sistemas Arrecifales, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Puerto Morelos, Q. Roo 77580, México</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Departamento El Hombre y su Ambiente, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Xochimilco, Coyoacán, Cd. de México 04960, México</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>Unidad Académica Mazatlán, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 82040 Mazatlán, Mexico</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories 4 Quai Antoine 1er, MC-98000 Monaco, Principality of Monaco</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff10">
<label>10</label>
<addr-line>Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Cienfuegos (CEAC), Cienfuegos, Cuba</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff11">
<label>11</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Marine Sciences, ISMAR-CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff12">
<label>12</label>
<addr-line>Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Geowissenschaften, Kiel, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>29</day>
<month>06</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>21</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Sahra Greve et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3519/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3519/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3519/egusphere-2026-3519.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3519/egusphere-2026-3519.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Tropical corals preserve geochemical &lt;sup&gt;238&lt;/sup&gt;U/&lt;sup&gt;234&lt;/sup&gt;U ratios that provide valuable records of past seawater uranium isotope compositions. Variations in the coral skeletons and thus seawater are likely indicative of freshwater contributions from submerged groundwater discharge and river runoff, or reflecting coral diagenesis. Advances in multi-collector ICP-MS allow precise determinations of &lt;sup&gt;238&lt;/sup&gt;U/&lt;sup&gt;234&lt;/sup&gt;U ratios, enabling the reconstruction of subtle (typically &amp;gt;1 &amp;permil;) environmental changes in these marine records. In this study, we evaluate the reliability of coral-based &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;234&lt;/sup&gt;U records across multiple genera, sampling strategies, and intra-skeletal variability. Analyses of reference material NBS-CRM-112A demonstrate reproducibility within &amp;plusmn;0.4 &amp;permil;. Replicate sampling across coral structures and colonies indicates measurable intra-band heterogeneity (&amp;plusmn;0.6 &amp;permil;), although local hydrodynamics and submarine groundwater discharge can introduce small inter-colony offsets. No species-dependent isotope fractionation was detected, underscoring the robustness of &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;234&lt;/sup&gt;U as a geochemical proxy. These findings demonstrate that coral skeletons provide reliable archives of up to sub-annual &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;234&lt;/sup&gt;U&lt;sub&gt;sw&lt;/sub&gt; for detecting subtle climatic and hydrological signals.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft</funding-source>
<award-id>468685637</award-id>
<award-id>441832482</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Secretaría de Ciencia, Humanidades, Tecnología e Innovación</funding-source>
<award-id>CNR C0013-2016-05-277942</award-id>
<award-id>SEMARNAT 2016-01-278634</award-id>
<award-id>PDCPN2013-01/214349</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>International Atomic Energy Agency</funding-source>
<award-id>RLA7020</award-id>
<award-id>INT7019</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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<back>
</back>
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