Prominence of environmental and anthropogenic agents on the occurrence of coral reef bleaching syndrome and coral diseases

Coral reefs are the most productive ecosystems on Earth. They ensure the conservation of biodiversity and are a live habitat for 25% of all marine organisms. The main relationship on the coral reef is the symbiosis between corals and algae from the genus Symbiodinium (commonly called zooxanthellae). The authors of this publication have characterized and described the factors limiting the occurrence of coral reefs, including: water temperature, salinity, access to sunlight, contamination, physicochemical and hydromechanical parameters of water. Moreover anthropogenic threats to coral reefs have been specified, including diving tourism, ecological disasters (e.g. oil spills) and the development of marine aquaristics. Rapid changes in the basic living conditions are dangerous for corals and their symbionts and may cause the unsuitability of the new environment resulting in diseases such as coral bleaching. Corals bleaching is a disease associated with the break of the coral and algae relationship which results in a coral reef death on a global scale. Awareness of these negative factors, often related to human activity, may allow us to better understand the ecological processes that are the basis of reef functioning and might enable us to prevent and oppose to the changes and ecological recessions of coral reefs.

A distinctive new species of the genus Polyonyx Stimpson, 1858 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Porcellanidae) from Okinawa, southwestern Japan

The new porcellanid crab Polyonyx deezi n. sp. is described on the basis of two specimens from Okinawa Island, Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan. The new species belongs to the P. sinensis group and may be closest to P. socialis Werding & Hiller, 2019 in the comparatively broad proportions of the carpi of the chelipeds and meri of the ambulatory legs. However, P. deezi n. sp. is immediately distinguished from all other congeners by the median branchial margins of the carapace being bluntly angular and produced laterally and the dorsal surfaces of the carapace and chelipeds with distinct protuberances. The occurrence of P. deezi n. sp. from coral reefs may be unusual in species of the P. sinensis group because many of the known species have been recorded from estuaries or coastal embayments. An identification key to the Indo-West Pacific species of the Polyonyx sinensis group is provided.

Drivers of variation in occurrence, abundance, and behaviour of sharks on coral reefs

Quantifying the drivers of population size in reef sharks is critical for the development of appropriate conservation strategies. In north-west Australia, shark populations inhabit coral reefs that border growing centres of human population, industry, and tourism. However, we lack baseline data on reef sharks at large spatial scales (hundreds of km) that might enable managers to assess the status of shark populations in the face of future development in this region. Here, we examined the occurrence, abundance and behaviour of apex (Galeocerdo cuvier, Carcharhinus plumbeus) and reef (C. amblyrhynchos, C. melanopterus, Triaenodon obesus) sharks using > 1200 deployments of baited remote underwater stereo-video systems (stereo-BRUVs) across > 500 km of coastline. We found evidence for species-specific influences of habitat and fishing activities on the occurrence (probability of observation), abundance (MaxN) and behaviour of sharks (time of arrival to the stereo-BRUVs and likelihood of feeding). Although the presence of management zoning (No-take areas) made little difference to most species, C. amblyrhynchos were more common further from boat ramps (a proxy of recreational fishing pressure). Time of arrival for all species was also influenced by distance to boat ramp, although patterns varied among species. Our results demonstrate the capacity for behavioural metrics to complement existing measures of occurrence and abundance in assessing the potential impact of human activities on shark populations.

Coral Reefs, Fresh Streams and Deep Oceans in The Future of Planning Research: Introducing Planext in The Framework of Aesop Policies and Strategies

I am happy to introduce the first volume of plaNext as one of the most challenging initiatives of our association. What is plaNext? plaNext is an open access online journal intellectually produced and managed by AESOP Young Academics. plaNext is published as part of the AESOP online publishing platform, InPlanning. It is an international peer- reviewed journal. It arises from the collective work of our community. And so, plaNext is many things at the same time.

Analysis On Ecological Characteristics of Mississippian Coral Reefs in Langping, Guangxi

Several Late Viséan-Serpukhovian coral reefs were identified in Langping, Tianlin. To further understand of environment that was suitable for the development of reef-building communities and the construction of coral reefs in Langping, in this paper, part of the reef-building environmental and the ecological characteristics of coral reefs then were recovered by analyzing the development settings, palaeogeography, sedimentation of reefs, the response to hydrodynamic conditions of reef-building corals, effects of disturbance and non-reef-building organism on reef communities, and the influence of coral morphology on reef development. The sedimentary environment of Langping in Late Viséan-Serpukhovian is considered to be suitable for the development of benthic communities. The current appearance of reefs is determined by both coral populations ecological characteristics and reef-building environment.

Reconstructing High-Precision Coral Reef Geomorphology from Active Remote Sensing Datasets: A Robust Spatial Variability Modified Ordinary Kriging Method

Active remote sensing technology represented by multi-beam and lidar provides an important approach for the effective acquisition of underwater coral reef geomorphological information. A spatially continuous surface model of coral reef geomorphology reconstructed from active remote sensing datasets can provide important geomorphological parameters for the research of coral reef geomorphological and ecological changes. However, the surface modeling methods commonly used in previous studies, such as ordinary kriging (OK) and natural neighborhood (NN), often represent a “smoothing effect”, which causes the strong spatial variability of coral reefs to be imprecisely reflected by the reconstructed surfaces, thus affecting the accurate calculation of subsequent geomorphological parameters. In this study, a spatial variability modified OK (OK-SVM) method is proposed to reduce the impact of the “smoothing effect” on the high-precision reconstruction of the complex geomorphology of coral reefs. The OK-SVM adopts a collaborative strategy of global parameter transformation, local residual correction, and extremum correction to modify the spatial variability of the reconstructed model, while maintaining high local accuracy. The experimental results show that the OK-SVM has strong robustness to spatial variability modification. This method was applied to the geomorphological reconstruction of the northern area of a coral atoll in the Nansha Islands, South China Sea, and the performance was compared with that of OK and NN. The results show that OK-SVM has higher numerical accuracy and attribute accuracy in detailed morphological fidelity, and is more adaptable in the geomorphological reconstruction of coral reefs with strong spatial variability. This method is relatively reliable for achieving high-precision reconstruction of complex geomorphology of coral reefs from active remote sensing datasets, and has potential to be extended to other geomorphological reconstruction applications.

Correlation between Coral Reef Condition and the Diversity and Abundance of Fishes and Sea Urchins on an East African Coral Reef

Coral reefs are one of the most diverse marine ecosystems, providing numerous ecosystem services. This present study investigated the relationship between coral reef condition and the diversity and abundance of fishes, on a heavily fished East African coral reef at Gazi Bay, Kenya. Underwater visual censuses were conducted on thirty 50 × 5 m belt transects to assess the abundance and diversity of fishes. In parallel, a 25-m length of each of the same transects was recorded with photo-quadrats to assess coral community structure and benthic characteristics. For statistical analyses, multi-model inference based on the Akaike Information Criterion was used to evaluate the support for potential predictor variables of coral reef and fish diversity. We found that coral genus richness was negatively correlated with the abundance of macroalgae, whereas coral cover was positively correlated with both the abundance of herbivorous invertebrates (sea urchins) and with fish family richness. Similarly, fish family richness appeared mainly correlated with coral cover and invertebrate abundance, although no correlates of fish abundance could be identified. Coral and fish diversity were very low, but it appears that, contrary to some locations on the same coast, sea urchin abundance was not high enough to be having a negative influence on coral and fish assemblages. Due to increasing threats to coral reefs, it is important to understand the relationship among the components of the coral reef ecosystem on overfished reefs such as that at Gazi Bay.