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Turkish Journal of Zoology

DOI

10.55730/1300-0179.3156

Abstract

Continuous evaluation and monitoring of coral percentage cover and health status is critical for enhancing coral reef resilience management. The present study aimed to determine the coverage and coral status at important sites of Tioman Island Marine Park, which include Renggis Island, Tiong Point and Tekek. Surveillance video recording and in situ observation were carried out using the Coral Video Transect (CVT) method, which were analyzed using the Coral Point Count with Excel extension (CPCe) software. The overall health status for the study area was considered as “fair” with 41.61% ± 4.46% of mean live coral coverage. Among the stations Renggis Island had the highest live coral coverage accounting for 50.71% ± 6.97%, which was classified as ‘good’. In terms of coral diversity, a total of 11 families and 36 genera were identified for the three sampling sites. Family Acroporidae, which includes the Acropora, Anacropora and Montipora, dominated the coral reef within the study area with 17.09% ± 2.54% coverage. Acropora was the most abundant with 12.40% ± 3.66% coverage, followed by Porites (11.31% ± 1.33%), Leptoseris (5.12% ± 5.09%), Montipora (4.69% ± 3.43%) and Sinularia (2.58% ± 2.33%). In terms of conservation, Renggis Island and Tiong Point were categorized as Conservation Class 4 (CC-4), which indicates great diversity of species, while Tekek was in Conservation Class 2 (CC-2). Tiong Point has the highest diversity (H’ = 1.64) and good evenness values (J = 0.64), but it also recorded a high mortality index (MI = 0.55). Tekek on the other hand, recorded the lowest diversity (H’ = 1.26) and poor evenness (J = 0.44), with the highest mortality index (MI = 0.59). In conclusion, some of the reef areas on Tioman Island were not in the best condition, thus efforts should be taken to enhance coral reef resilience that may improve coral reef conservation and preservation.

Keywords

Coral Cover, coral health, coral video transect (CVT), diversity, sustainability

First Page

13

Last Page

20

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