Extensive monospecific stand of Blue coral Heliopora coerulea (Pallas, 1766) in the Chetlat atoll of Lakshadweep Archipelago

Sreenath, K R and Anto, Alvin and Raju, Aju K and Jasmine, S and Sreeram, Miriam Paul and Ranjith, L and Joshi, K K (2021) Extensive monospecific stand of Blue coral Heliopora coerulea (Pallas, 1766) in the Chetlat atoll of Lakshadweep Archipelago. Indian Journal of Geo Marine sciences, 50 (9). pp. 759-761.

Text Indian Journal of Geo Marine sciences_2021_Joshi K K.pdf Download (1MB)

Abstract

The study reports massive and dense Blue coral Heliopora coerulea (Pallas, 1766) population in Chetlat atoll, one of the northernmost atolls in the Lakshadweep Archipelago. Globally, there are only a few instances of the occurrence of such massive blue coral populations, mostly from Japan. Underwater survey shows that about 60 % of the entire reef area is occupied by the Blue coral. In addition, this atoll was observed to have lesser cover of different species of Acropora as compared to the reports from other Lakshadweep atolls. Both Acropora and Heliopora are described to be mutually competitive and Heliopora are comparatively more resilient to climatic stressors. The knowledge about the occurrence of such a large swathe of the Blue corals is important in the current scenario of the widespread deterioration of the coral reefs due to changing climate.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Climate; Coral reef; Microhabitats; Resilience; Singlespecies stands
Subjects:	Marine Ecosystems > Coral Reefs Marine Environment
Divisions:	CMFRI-Kochi > Marine Biodiversity Division Subject Area > CMFRI > CMFRI-Kochi > Marine Biodiversity Division CMFRI-Kochi > Marine Biodiversity Division Subject Area > CMFRI-Kochi > Marine Biodiversity Division
Depositing User:	Arun Surendran
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2022 05:44
Last Modified:	22 Dec 2022 04:45
URI:	http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/id/eprint/15796

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