Realm: Marine
Climate: Tropical
Biome: Tropical seas
Central latitude: 21.952506
Central longitude: 120.769645
Duration: 3 years, from 2003 to 2005

160 records

58 distinct species

Across the time series Montipora stellata is the most frequently occurring species

Methods

Three transects were established for surveys. Transects were aligned perpendicular to the isobaths and directly on the ramparts. Their length varied from 15 to 20 m depending on the rampart length. Transects were fixed and were used for periodic monitoring annually. Samples were taken using the photo-square method with an Olympus C-5050 underwater digital camera fixing on a tetrapod frame. Sampling frames of 0.04 m2 (20 cm * 20 cm) in 2003 and 2004 and 0.125 m2 (35 cm * 35 cm) in 2005 were used. Coral species cover estimation of benthic categories was performed using CPCe (Coral Point Count with Excel extension) software developed at the National Coral Reef Institute (FL USA). Twenty and fifty random points were used to estimate percentage cover of benthic categories within a frame sized 0.04 and 0.125 m2 respectively. Seventy 0.04 m2 frames and thirty 0.125 m2 frames were randomly chosen from each transect for estimation of coverage of benthic categories. The photos were took by members from Prof. Fans labs then analysised by Konstantin S. Tkachenko. Chao-yang Kuo has the raw data passed from Konstantin. Unit of abundance = MeanCount, Unit of biomass = NA

Citation(s)

Tkachenko, K. S., Wu, B.-J., Fang, L.-S. & Fan, T.-Y. (2007) Dynamics of a coral reef community after mass mortality of branching Acropora corals and an outbreak of anemones. Marine Biology, 151, 185–194.