Metazoan reef builders receded globally during the Carboniferous resulting from the Late Devonian extinction events. During this period, shallow-water bioconstructions are commonly small and scarce, and corals play a minor role in their construction. However, in southern China, several extended coral-bearing bioconstructions have recently been discovered, dated from Late Viséan-Serpukhovian and Late Kasimovian-Gzhelian respectively. To understand the coral reef distribution and to constrain the factors that control their growth, eight sections were investigated using petrography, biostratigraphy, chemostratigraphy and geochemistry.