Quantification of coral reef benthos for coral health assessment in Labuan Marine Park, Malaysia
2018
Azizi Ali | Chan, Albert Apollo | Izarenah Md Repin | Md Nizam Ismail | Mohd Safuan Che din | Zainudin Bachok | Chong, Wei Sheng | Khaira Ismail | Idham Khalil
A coral assessment was carried out utilizing Coral Video Transect (CVT) technique over 12 reef sites in Labuan Marine Park (LMP), Malaysia. The goals of the assessment were to determine the present coral health status and to determine the pattern of coral community in the LMP. Among the four different localities surveyed, Rusukan Besar and Rusukan Kecil Island was mainly predominated by live (C) and dead coral (DC) while the Southern Reef is mainly covered by DC, sand, silt and rock (SR) and C. Kuraman Island significantly different between other localities by the domination of algae (ALG), SR and DC. Majority of the reefs were in ‘poor’ condition with 58.33% of the reef sites have the percentage of live coral cover between 0.97% - 22.5%. Only 25% and 16.67% of the reef sites were rated as ‘fair’ and ‘good’ condition. Overall, the coral reef in LMP was in ‘fair’ condition and possessed 27.22% of the live coral cover which near to the borderline of ‘poor category. A total of 38 coral genera from 13 different families were recorded. Among all genera, Acropora accounted the highest proportion of coral cover followed by Porites and Montipora. Two coral communities were preoccupying the reefs in LMP based on the cluster and SIMPER analysis: Acropora-Porites-Montipora community and Acropora-Porites-Favites community. The findings of this study can provide detailed baseline information for subsequent studies as well as for conservation and protection management to the coral reefs of LMP.
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