Abstract Upper Paleozoic limestones were studied in the subsurface on the eastern side of the Central Basin platform, west Texas, to determine the effect of long-term change in accommodation on short-term cycles. Approximately 87 cycles are present in five stratigraphic intervals that are (from bottom to top) the Strawn, Canyon, Cisco, Wolfcamp detritai interval, and Wolfcamp "reef interval. The lower three intervals are Middle to Upper Pennsylvanian, and the two Wolfcamp intervals are Lower Permian. The average cycle thickness is 3.7 m. Most cycles are bounded by subaerial-exposure surfaces, and each cycle apparently represents a glacio-eustatic fluctuation of sea level at an average frequency of approximately 163,000 yr per cycle. Characteristics of cycles change upward from the base of the Strawn (well depth of 2950 m [9700 ft]) to the top of the Cisco (depth of 2730 m [8950 ft]), and those changes include a general shallowing of depositional facies (more grainstones), a decrease in average cycle thickness (an average of 5.2 decreasing to 1.9 m), an increase in amount of shale, and a decrease in δ 13 C and δ 13 O values of bulk-rock samples. These patterns are interpreted to be a response to a long-term decrease in rate of accommodation. The changes upward through the Wolfcampian (between depths of 2620 and 2730 m [8600 and 8950 ft]), however, include a general thickening of the depositional cycles (an average of 2 increasing to 4.5 m), an increase in δ 13 C and δ 18 O values, and more deep-water facies (more wackestones and mudstones), apparently in response to a long-term increase in accommodation. A major drowning and backstepping of the carbonate-platform margin occurred at the top of the Wolfcamp reef interval. The time represented by each cycle includes (1) time when the sediment surface was below sea level accumulating carbonate sediment and (2) time when the sediment surface was subjected to meteoric diagenesis above sea level and no carbonate sediment accumulated. Meteoric diagenesis apparently caused the stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of entire limestone cycles to become lighter with more prolonged subaerial exposure. Low δ 13 C and δ 18 O values in thin cycles suggest that the cycles were subjected to progressively longer subaerial exposures as the rate of accommodation decreased; finally, a major unconformity was created at the top of the Pennsylvanian. This scenario supports the idea that, compared to thin cycles, thick cycles spent more time below sea level accumulating sediment and less time above sea level being subjected to meteoric diagenesis. The most widespread porosity occurs in cycles of intermediate or greater thickness (>2 m) that were subaerially exposed for brief to moderately long periods (estimated at 5,000–50,000 yr) of freshwater diagenesis (upper part of the Strawn, lower and middle parts of the Canyon, and Wolfcamp reef intervals). Thin cycles (<2 m thick; upper part of the Cisco and lower part of the Wolfcamp detrital interval) have little porosity because (I) longer subaerial exposure resulted in more cements filling most matrix pores and (2) vugs, fractures, fissures, and caverns that formed during prolonged subaerial exposure were filled by shale.