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Studies on the Recovery of Bleached Corals in Andaman: Fishes as Indicators of Reef Health

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Relation http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/10035/
 
Title Studies on the Recovery of Bleached
Corals in Andaman: Fishes as Indicators
of Reef Health
 
Creator Krishnan, P
George, Grinson
Immanuel, Titus
Bitopan, Malakar
Anand, A
 
Subject Conservation
Coral Reefs
 
Description The corals in Andaman and Nicobar Islands suffered extensive
bleaching during April 2010 to the extent of 60–70 % due to elevated sea surface
temperature (SST) and a significant portion of that is hitherto dead. This study
evaluates the degree of recovery of the coral reefs and reef fishes, a year after the
event. Line intercept transect (LIT) surveys were conducted in three sites, namely,
North Bay, Tarmugli and Chidiyatapu for assessing coral cover together with
visual census of reef fishes along the same transects. It was observed that all sites
were quite badly affected during the bleaching period with more than 95 % of the
corals being fully or partially bleached. Out of the bleached corals, only 54 %
recovered at North Bay, whereas Tarmugli and Chidiyatapu exhibited 81 and 86 %
recovery, respectively. The collapse of coral reef systems affected the abundance
and diversity among fish species. Due to recovery and new recruitment of corals,
live coral cover has increased, and consequently,, abundance of fishes seems to
have increased. Understanding the associations of fishes and corals could possibly
lead to selection of certain species of fishes as indicators of reef health. The results
of the study lead to the hypothesis that fishes, especially those belong to the
families, Chaetodontidae, Pomacentridae, Acanthuridae and Scaridae can be
potential indicators of reef health.
 
Publisher Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
 
Contributor Venkataraman, K
 
Date 2013
 
Type Book Section
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Identifier http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/10035/1/Fish_as_Indicator_Springer_Grinson.pdf
Krishnan, P and George, Grinson and Immanuel, Titus and Bitopan, Malakar and Anand, A (2013) Studies on the Recovery of Bleached Corals in Andaman: Fishes as Indicators of Reef Health. In: Ecology and Conservation of Tropical Marine Faunal Communities. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 395-407.