Baseline assessment of coral health and disease in Tioman Island Marine Park, Malaysia
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Baseline assessment of coral health and disease in Tioman Island Marine Park, Malaysia K. Fikri Akmal1 · Saad Shahbudin1,2 Received: 26 February 2020 / Accepted: 8 October 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó Zrt. 2020
Abstract Coral disease outbreaks continue to reduce coral populations in the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific reefs. However, there is limited research on coral diseases in Malaysian reefs, despite being exposed to multiple natural and anthropogenic threats. The present study aims to determine coral health and disease prevalence using coral video transect method among three reef areas with varying levels of coastal development and tourism activity in Tioman Island Marine Park, Malaysia. A total of 16,884 coral colonies were observed, the majority of which was healthy (64.4% ± 3.1) compared to diseased (5.9% ± 1.0) and compromised (29.7% ± 3.1). Reef sites with the highest concentration of tourism exhibited a high prevalence of coral diseases and signs of compromised health. Among the six identified coral diseases, yellow band disease/YBD (1.89% ± 0.9) had the highest prevalence, followed by ulcerative white spots/UWS (1.25% ± 0.2) and white syndrome/WS (0.82% ± 0.2). Meanwhile, algal and sponge overgrowth/AGO (11.39% ± 2.5), sediment necrosis/SN (7.55% ± 0.9), predation scars/PS (6.08% ± 0.7) and physical damage/PD (2.29% ± 0.9) were the most prevalent among the eight identified states of coral compromised health. Altogether, 33 scleractinian genera were influenced, with Fungia predominantly exposed to YBD (> 30% colonies), while Porites and Acropora were affected by UWS and WS (11–20% colonies), respectively. Overall, the severity of coral diseases and signs of compromised health, which is greater across the west coast and offshore areas compared to the east coast area, might be influenced by coastal development and tourism activities. Keywords Coral reefs · Coral disease · Coral compromised health · Marine Park · Peninsular Malaysia
Introduction Coral reefs provide significant ecosystem goods and services to millions of people living near coastlines throughout the tropics (Burke et al. 2011). However, they have rapidly degraded over the last several decades, primarily in response to unprecedented natural and anthropogenic threats (De’ath and Fabricius 2010; Pratchett et al. 2014). Bleaching events and associated disease outbreaks are among the greatest threats to the sustainability of coral reefs (Harvell et al. 2007). The spatial and temporal dynamics of coral * K. Fikri Akmal [email protected] 1
Department of Marine Science, Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, 25200 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
Institute of Oceanography and Maritime Studies, Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kg. Cherok Paloh, 26160 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
2
diseases are mainly driven by elevated sea surface temperatures (Heron et al. 2010; Ruiz-Morenol et al. 2012; Manzello 2015; Walton et al. 2018) and increased human disturbances,
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