isolated bulk coral samples were chemically cleaned using previously
established methods modified from Shen and Boyle (1988), Guzman
and Jarvis (1996), and Bastidas and Garcia (1999) and dried overnight.
This process involved a sequence of oxidizing, reducing and leaching
steps, with multiple rinses and ultrasonication in Milli-Q water. This
protocol did not include a hydrazine step that is typically included to
remove oxide coatings, therefore both lattice bound and non-lattice
bound elements are reported here. The bulk coral sampleswere homogenized
by crushingwith an agate mortar and pestle and passed through
polypropylene sieves to an optimal size fraction (200–700 μm) (Shen
and Boyle, 1987). The samples were then leached in 0.015 N HNO3 for
20 min to isolate compound trabeculae.