A high sedimentation event caused by dredging and dumping of sediment was recorded on Xiaodonghai Reef in Yulin Bay,southern Hainan Island,China.Significantly high sedimentation and constant light shading were observe...A high sedimentation event caused by dredging and dumping of sediment was recorded on Xiaodonghai Reef in Yulin Bay,southern Hainan Island,China.Significantly high sedimentation and constant light shading were observed during the sediment dumping event(SD Event).Using long-term video transects,we quantified coral community changes and responses to the SD Event between 2008 and 2010.The SD Event caused severe coral mortality on Xiaodonghai Reef at a depth of 6 m,while corals at 3 m were less affected.Total live coral cover at 6 m decreased from 54.3% to 14.8%,and Diploastrea heliopora replaced Galaxea fascicularis as the dominant coral species at 6 and 9 m.The density of juvenile corals also declined after the SD Event,especially for the genera Galaxea and Platygyra.However,the density of juvenile Porites and Pocillopora spp.slightly increased.Monitoring for 11 months after the SD Event indicated no recovery of coral communities on Xiaodonghai Reef.Long-term video transect data also revealed that mean live coral cover dramatically declined,from 30.5% in 2008 to 9% in 2010,while the dominant corals in Yulin Bay shifted to more tolerant coral species,such as massive Porites spp.and D.heliopora.The rapid coral community degradation in Yulin Bay between 2008 and 2010 was probably caused by high sediment deposition resulting from intensive dredging and land-clearing activities.These results highlight the necessity for an integrated watershed management to control sediment deposition on near-shore coral reefs.展开更多
基金supported by Key Topics in Innovation Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-227)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40830850,41106141 and 40931160437)+1 种基金the National Key Technology R&D Program(2009BAB44B01)the Ocean Public Welfare Scientific Research Project(201005012-6)
文摘A high sedimentation event caused by dredging and dumping of sediment was recorded on Xiaodonghai Reef in Yulin Bay,southern Hainan Island,China.Significantly high sedimentation and constant light shading were observed during the sediment dumping event(SD Event).Using long-term video transects,we quantified coral community changes and responses to the SD Event between 2008 and 2010.The SD Event caused severe coral mortality on Xiaodonghai Reef at a depth of 6 m,while corals at 3 m were less affected.Total live coral cover at 6 m decreased from 54.3% to 14.8%,and Diploastrea heliopora replaced Galaxea fascicularis as the dominant coral species at 6 and 9 m.The density of juvenile corals also declined after the SD Event,especially for the genera Galaxea and Platygyra.However,the density of juvenile Porites and Pocillopora spp.slightly increased.Monitoring for 11 months after the SD Event indicated no recovery of coral communities on Xiaodonghai Reef.Long-term video transect data also revealed that mean live coral cover dramatically declined,from 30.5% in 2008 to 9% in 2010,while the dominant corals in Yulin Bay shifted to more tolerant coral species,such as massive Porites spp.and D.heliopora.The rapid coral community degradation in Yulin Bay between 2008 and 2010 was probably caused by high sediment deposition resulting from intensive dredging and land-clearing activities.These results highlight the necessity for an integrated watershed management to control sediment deposition on near-shore coral reefs.
