Publisher : Bulletin of Marine Science
Place of publication :
Publication year : 2001
Thematic : Coral Reef
Language : English
Note
Coral reefs are increasingly subject to a variety of threats from local to global scales.
The development of monitoring and assessment tools to diagnose coral reef community
responses to threats would assist greatly in management of their impacts. This paper
examines interspecific patterns of bleaching, mortality, and recovery of corals on reefs in
Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar for one year after the 1997–98 El Niño.
On average, 50–80% bleaching and mortality of corals occurred throughout the region.
Coral tissue condition (normal, pale, bleached, and dead) was recorded for up to 1 yr after
the onset of bleaching. Thirteen coral species were used for analysis. Cluster Analysis
and Principal Components Analysis with factor rotation were applied to the dataset, giving
two major groups of species, characterized by (a) severe bleaching followed by 100%
mortality (e.g., Acropora spp., Pocillopora spp., Galaxea astreata), (b) graduated bleaching
with pale tissue and low-to-moderate mortality (e.g., Porites lutea, Echinopora
gemmacea, Hydnophora exesa), and one outlier with long-term persistence of bleaching
(Montipora tuberculosa). These species groups based on the bleaching response are consistent
with life history strategies proposed by other workers. It is proposed that observations
of coral condition and bleaching in the field, interpreted in the light of life history
theory, can provide a coral bioassay technique for reef monitoring and management.
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Keywords : indigenous peoples
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
