US EPA

7900112 

Journal Article 

Coral mortality and bioerosion index for assessing environmental stress effects: A study case of the indonesian tropical reef in banda-neira conservation park 

Zamani, NP; Januar, HI 

2020 

1 

Aquaculture, Aquarium, Conservation & Legislation (AACL) Bioflux
ISSN: 1844-8143
EISSN: 1844-9166 

BIOFLUX SRL 

13 

2 

1027-1037 

English 

Periodic monitoring of ecological conditions is a demand in coral reef conservation. Identification of coral and environmental conditions is needed to evaluate conservation effectiveness. Most conservation studies in developing countries usually use the live coral cover index to access coral reef health condition. However, this method does not calculate the ecological impact of environmental stress on coral reef community, such as coral mortality or coral bioerosion. This paper presents a simple mortality-bioerosion index to assess the health condition of coral reef. The index was developed from a study of environmental stress on the tropical coral community in Indonesian Banda-Neira Conservation Park. Coral cover (three 30 m line intercept transects) and water quality parameters including clarity, pH, DO (dissolved oxygen), salinity, phosphate, nitrate, and ammonia were analyzed in situ, and statistical correlations between these parameter were determined by multivariate analysis. The results of this study showed that coral communities were degraded, with inorganic nitrogen eutrophication as the major factor. The simple proposed index proves to be reliable in classifying the ecological condition of tropical coral reef environment. Classification is noted as very poor and poor (an environment with low light intensity and inorganic nitrogen eutrophication), good (an environment with slight pressure from eutrophication), and excellent (an environment with adequate water clarity, dissolved oxygen, and pH). © 2020, BIOFLUX SRL. All rights reserved. 

Coral index; Coral reef; Eutrophication; Sewage pollution; Tropic