Extensive coral reef decline in Nha Trang Bay, Vietnam: Acanthaster planci outbreak: the final event in a sequence of chronic disturbances
| Autor: | Nguyen H. Thanh, Temir A. Britayev, Nguyen H. Huan, Konstantin S. Tkachenko |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
geography.geographical_feature_category Ecology biology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Coral Acanthaster Estuary Coral reef Aquatic Science Oceanography biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Montipora Fishery Geography Acropora Bay Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Invertebrate |
| Zdroj: | Marine and Freshwater Research. 72:186 |
| ISSN: | 1323-1650 |
| DOI: | 10.1071/mf20005 |
| Popis: | Nha Trang Bay (NTB), located off the south-east coast of Vietnam, is a famous tropical tourist site. In the past, the bay was characterised by flourishing coral reefs but, by the end of 2019, more than 90% of the corals were gone. In addition to chronic and complex anthropogenic effects, there was an extensive outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci), the main natural predator of reef-building corals in the Indo-Pacific, among the remnant coral communities in NTB. By 2019, the mean abundance of A. planci in NTB reached 4.2 starfish per 100m2. Coral surveys conducted on 10 target sites over a 3-year period ending in 2019 revealed that mean coral cover decreased by 64.4% (coral loss varied from 43 to 95%). The greatest declines were in Acropora and Montipora, with 80.6 and 82.3% reductions in the coverage of these taxa respectively. The combination of nutrient enrichment and predator removal is thought to determine the extent of the outbreak of A. planci in the bay. The present trends in environmental conditions in NTB do not indicate a positive outcome for coral reef recovery in in this area in the near future. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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