Coral disease prevalence and coral health in the Wakatobi Marine Park, south-east Sulawesi, Indonesia
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This is the first study on coral diseases in the Wakatobi Marine National Park (WMNP), south-east Sulawesi. It aimed to provide baseline knowledge of coral disease prevalence and coral health in this remote region. Results indicate a low disease prevalence of 0.57% with only two known diseases occurring within the sampling unit, white syndrome (0.42%) and tumours (0.15%). They affected 15 taxonomic groups from a total of 32 taxonomic groups. The presence of black-band disease (BBD), skeletal eroding band (SEB) disease and Porites ulcerative white spot disease (PUWSD) was identified outside the study area. A large number of corals were affected by previously undescribed conditions (9.7% of colonies). The impact of lesions named as green spot, green band, pigmented spot, and flatworm infestation is not known and represents an important area for future studies.Keywords:
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Lubis MZ, Pujiyati S, Tauhid M, Anurogo W, Kausarian H. 2018. Coral reefs recruitment in stone substrate on Gosong Pramuka, Seribu Islands, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 19: 1451-1458. Gosong Pramuka is a reef distribution area located in the center of the Seribu Islands of Jakarta, Indonesia. This research was conducted from April to June 2015, located within the Gosong Pramuka area, Kepulauan Seribu, Indonesia. This location has 4 observation stations: Exposed I and II and Shielded I and II. Coral reefs identified at the study sites consisted of 95 colonies, with colonies most abundant in Exposure Station I (35 colonies), and in the genus Acropora and Porites. Acropora coral growth is tabulated, branching, digitate and encrusting, and Porites are only sub-massive and massive. The average area obtained from recruiting coral colonies had a range of 25-50 cm2, and the average diameter of coral recruits was 9-12 cm. The results of this research determined the coral health index of the area is 2-3. Based on the CoralWatch method, the coral at the station where the research was conducted is classified as under stress conditions. The value of recalculated coral density obtained in this study was 0.22 colony/m2 at Exposure Station I, 0.11 colony/m2 at Shielded Station I, 0.13 colony/m2 at Exposure Station II, and in 0.11 colony/m2 at Shielded Station II. Temperatures in all four stations range from 30-32°C; this temperature range is within the optimum temperature range for coral growth. The depth at all four stations was in the ranged from 70-98 cm; this indicates the stations where the research was conducted is still within an optimum depth.
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Increasing ocean temperature and acidification is a result of high anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. These environmental changes are challenging the future of many calcifying marine organisms such as corals. It is crucial to improve our understanding of how climate change will affect different species of hard coral, as it may vary significantly between coral species, coral colonies or reef environments where they were found. The overall aim of this thesis is to better understand how corals with different life-history respond to changes in the present and future abiotic environments. Previous research suggests that Porites cylindrica can survive several months longer than other species under unfavourable conditions. P. cylindrica is generally found in abundance on the reef-flat of Heron Island but can also be found on the reef-slope. The resilience and the occurrence of this species at distinct reef locations make it an ideal species to compare the physiological changes it has made to accommodate high energy zone with limited diurnal variability in water chemistry (reef-slope), compared to physiological changes adopted in low energy zone with high diurnal variability in water chemistry, light, and temperatures (reef-flat). In particular, some have suggested that repeated exposure to stress leads to epigenetic transcriptional changes that favour survival upon future exposure to stress. Here, I examine whether: (i) P. cylindrica from the highly variable reef environment are better survivors than those raised in the less variable reef-slope environment. (ii) P. cylindrica potentially achieve an improved survival potential by reducing colony expansion in favour of tissue development. (iii) whether potential epigenetic changes limit the ability of P. cylindrica to respond to the more favourable environment with more positive coral expansion and calcification for periods when the environmental stressor is removed. In the latter case, the potential for epigenetics to accelerate “adaptation” to climate change is often labelled in the coral literature as an example of their transcription plasticity. However, epigenetic changes associated with thermal stress responses are also found to lead to the expression of the stress response irrespective of the immediate external conditions. That is, the epigenetic stress response can hardwire the organism’s transcriptional responses reducing its sensitivity to the environment. The questions were addressed via:1. A two-year reciprocal transplantation experiment with long-term changes in primary calcification (colony expansion), secondary calcification (buoyant weight change for fixed expansion rates), and tissue densities (protein and lipid concentrations), as well as symbiont densities, estimated over winter and summer periods (Chapter 2).2. Short-term incubations conducted frequently through the two-year transplantation experiment used to establish in-situ day and night O2 flux and calcification rates of the colonies exposed to both their reared and alternate abiotic environments (Chapter 3).3. An orthogonally designed winter tank experiment where the conspecifics were exposed to the singular and combined effects of projected, but seasonally variable, RCP2.6 pCO2 and thermal impacts, under high and low light environments (Chapter 4).In this thesis, I have found that corals with increased survival potential, invest less in coral calcification and more in tissue biomass (protein and lipids). These trades appeared more important to survival than the ability of the corals to maintain high endosymbiont densities. High protein density in reef-flat corals appeared to necessitate increased symbiont density to counter within-tissue light attenuation and allow for similar rates of daytime net-autotrophy. Likewise, significant symbiont reductions (70%) under high light conditions drove more efficient symbiont autotrophy rather than less efficient autotrophy. The use of symbiont densities as a marker of host health, therefore, has a few important caveats. The observed trade for tissue over skeleton in reef-flat corals was consistently maintained over prolonged periods of time and across experimental treatments. Reef-flat corals maintained lower calcification rates and lower net phototrophic acquisition even after corals were kept under new present-day field conditions for almost two years. Reef-flat populations maintained relative reductions in calcification rates and net phototrophic acquisition when maintained for 8 weeks under present-day and RCP2.6 winter scenarios. The results suggest that surviving intermittent periods of stress favours a coral body-plan that is biased towards accumulating biomass rather than extending rapidly in space with a dense skeletal structure. The accumulation of greater symbionts appears to be a by-product of a reduced extension rate and within tissue light attenuation. In underwater heatwaves that occur in the field, some corals survive bleaching for prolonged periods, in others death and bleach occur coincidently. Here, it appears that it is body biomass, greater feeding rates that enable corals to survive long periods of stress, rather than the longer retention of dense symbionts populations (bleaching susceptibility). Anomalous temperatures lead to coral bleaching and mortality but the mechanisms do not necessarily overlap, especially given the observation that in the coral-symbiont association, the coral host is not the only organism that is capable of supporting itself heterotrophically. Endosymbiotic dinoflagellates are capable of using the host as a source of energy to facilitate their survival within host tissue when autotrophy is impeded. Hope for future coral reefs needs to go beyond identifying “super corals” that resist bleaching. Future reefs will need to be capable of rapidly recovering lost calcium carbonate and hence the search for a future “super-coral” should focus primarily on survival potential and coral calcification rates. Unfortunately, these two features may be physiologically incompatible.
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Coral reef ecosystem is an ecosystem that plays a vital role as spawning floor, feeding floor and nursery ground for marine biota. This study aims to determine the survival and in growth rate of Acropora sp and Porites sp sp corals transplanted using frame media. This research was done in Kecinan Coastal Waters, Malaka Village, Pamenang District, North Lombok Regency. West Nusa Tenggara. The method used in this study an experimental method with 2 month observation, which repeated in every 2 weeks. Coral growth rate is observed twice, at the beginning of coral planting and at the end of the observation. The frame media used were 4 units a size of 1 x 1 m2, which placed 30 coral fragments each. So the total number of coral fragments observed was 120 in the media frame at the same depth. Acropora sp corals that were able to survive until the end of the study reached 96.67% while Porites sp sp corals reached 86.67%. The growth rate of Acropora sp was obtained at a value of 0.51 cm/month, while for Porites sp sp was 0.37 cm/month. The two transplanted corals had different growth forms so that they had different growth rate values. Acropora sp coral had a branching growth form with a hollow and porous limestone structure while Porites sp sp had a massive growth form with a denser and harder limestone skeletal structure.
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Coral bleaching
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δ~(18)O_(carb) of coral is the indicator of sea surface salinity,which needs to be tested by coral culture experiments in laboratory.In this paper,the new tandem aquarium system for coral culture and cultivation method of newly grown coral skeleton were used to carry out coral culture experiments at different salinities(30‰~37‰) in laboratory for the first time,and then δ~(18)O_(carb),Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca of cultured coral skeleton were determined.The results show that in the condition of pH and temperature remaining basically stable,the δ~(18)O_(carb) of cultured coral and the SSS present a significantly positive correlation,the linear regression curves of Acropora sp coral and Porites coral are δ~(18)O_(carb) = 0.132 ×SSS-8.93,r=0.91(Acropora sp coral) and δ~(18)O_(carb) =0.221 ×SSS-12.8,r=0.77(Porites coral)respectively,the slopes are 0.132 and 0.221,both of them are lower than reported value(0.438) from literature.From the experimental results,the δ~(18)O_(carb) and δ~(18)O_(sw) present a significant positive correlation,the linear regression curves of them are δ~(18)O_(carb)=0.904 x δ~(18)O_(sw)-3.82,r =0.92(Acropora sp coral)and δ~(18)O_(carb) = 1.48 × δ~(18)O_(sw)-4.20,r = 0.76(Porites coral),which indicate that the relationship between δ~(18)O_(carb) and SSS mainly due to the change of δ~(18)O_(sw) with SSS,if ruling out the effects of δ~(18)O_(carb),δ~(18)O_(carb)- δ~(18)O_(sw) will have nothing to do with SSS(Acropora sp coral,r = 0.27) or the correlation is very weak(Porites coral,r =0.37).The results also show that the Sr/Ca,Mg/Ca,Ba/Ca,B/Ca andδ~(11)B_(carb) of cultured coral skeletons have no obvious correlations with SSS,which may mean when we use the Sr/Ca,Mg/Ca,Ba/Ca,B/Ca and δ~(11)B_(carb) of cultured coral skeleton to study the environment reconstruction,we can need not consider the effects of SSS.
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Halimeda
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Hermatypic coral
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The Similan Islands (Thailand) in the Andaman Sea are exposed to large amplitude internal waves (LAIW), as evidenced by i.a. abrupt fluctuations in temperature of up to 10°C at supertidal frequencies. Although LAIW have been shown to affect coral composition and framework development in shallow waters, the role of LAIW on coral growth is so far unknown. We carried out a long-term transplant experiment with live nubbins and skeleton slabs of the dominating coral Porites lutea to assess the net growth and bioerosion in LAIW-exposed and LAIW-protected waters. Depth-related, seasonal and interannual differences in LAIW-intensities on the exposed western sides of the islands allowed us to separate the effect of LAIW from other possible factors (e.g. monsoon) affecting the corals. Coral growth and bioerosion were inversely related to LAIW intensity, and positively related to coral framework development. Accretion rates of calcareous fouling organisms on the slabs were negligible compared to bioerosion, reflecting the lack of a true carbonate framework on the exposed W faces of the Similan Islands. Our findings show that LAIW may play an important, yet so far overlooked, role in controlling coral growth in tropical waters.
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