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 (290Kb)
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| Yoshimi Fujioka | |
| Senior Researcher | |
| National Research Institute of Fisheries Science | |
| 6-1-21 Sanbashi-St. Kochi 780-8010 JAPAN | |
| Phone +81-88-832-5146, Fax +81-88-831-3103 | |
| E-mail fujioka@affrc.go.jp |
8,842,000 Yen
(FY 1999; 3,050,000 Yen)
Twelve representative hermatypic coral communities were investigated by means of a large quadrat method of 50 m x 50 m around Ishigaki Island, southwestern Japan. The coral coverage was 5.1-89.8 %, in which totals ranging from 31 to 132 species were recorded in each community. The species richness increased from the coastal side to the reef margin through the reef flat, was highest at the upper reef slope of approximately 5-15 m, and began to decline below 15 m depth. The coral coverage exhibited the similar trend except for a few sympatrically aggregated communities. The species-area curve was exclusively approximated to logarithmic functions. The number of colonies increased gradually, but suddenly decreased after the summer of 1998 because of the bleaching event. The present results support the non-equilibrium hypothesis because the dominant and fast-growing Acropora was suffered the severest
damages through bleaching.
Coral, Coral Reef, Diversity, Community, Bleaching