Life and death of a sewage treatment plant recorded in a coral skeleton Δ¹⁵N record

We investigated the potential of coral skeleton δ¹⁵N (CS-δ¹⁵N) records for tracking anthropogenic-N sources in coral reef ecosystems. We produced a 56 yr-long CS-δ¹⁵N record (1958–2014) from a reef flat in Guam that has been exposed to varying 1) levels of sewage treatment 2) population density, and 3) land use. Increasing population density (from < 30 to 300 ind·km^{− 2}) and land use changes in the watershed resulted in a ~ 1‰ enrichment of the CS-δ¹⁵N record until a sewage treatment plant (STP) started operation in 1975. Then, CS-δ¹⁵N stabilized, despite continued population density and land use changes. Based on population and other considerations, a continued increase in the sewage footprint might have been expected over this time. The stability of CS-δ¹⁵N, either contradicts this expectation, or indicates that the impacts on the outer reef at the coring site were buffered by the mixing of reef water with the open ocean.