The stable carbon isotopic composition of total coral tissue resembles that of isolates of its endosymbiotic zooxanthellae and varies with depth for several common Jamaican hermatypic scleractinian corals. In shallower water, both algae and total coral tissue are enriched in the heavier 13C isotope, suggesting that the shallow water zooxanthellae may photosynthesize at faster rates than the algae in the deeper water corals sampled, and that most of the organic carbon in the tissues of these shallow water corals has passed through their zooxanthellae.
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Land et al. (1975) studied this question.