ENIVRONMENT ASIA

Volume 12, No. 02, Month MAY, Year 2019, Pages 126 - 135

Early assessment of shipping route and coral cover as drivers of acroporid white syndrome outbreak in karimunjawa, java sea, indonesia

Agus Sabdono, Ocky Karna Radjasa, and Diah Permata Wijayanti

Abstract Download PDF

Coral diseases are increasing throughout the Karimunjawa archipelago because of local anthropogenic stressors concomitant with alterations in coral cover. The present study was carried out to quantify the indicators of coral cover and Acroporid White Syndrome (AWS) prevalence in cruise line waters. The coral cover was calculated based on an Underwater Photo Transect (UPT) survey. Prevalence of AWS was determined by calculating the amount of Acroporid coral affected by AWS disease divided by total coral colonies per 50 m2 transect quadrant. Results of the study showed that 98 out of a total of 1686 coral colonies were affected by AWS diseases. Prevalence of all AWS diseases observed was 4.99 ± 3.11% SE. There was no significant difference between coral disease prevalence in the cruise line and non-cruise line areas (P-value = 0.667, >0.05). However, a significant difference was found among site locations (P-value = 0.001, <0.05). There was a highly significant correlation between the percentage of coral cover and AWS prevalence (r = 0.775; P-value = 0.004). Although statistically not significant, a higher prevalence of diseases was observed in sites with a close proximity with to shipping lines. More extensive monitoring on several islands with longer intervals are recommended in the shipping routes. The increase of coral cover might be resulting in the high prevalence of coral disease occurrence.

Keywords

Acroporid White Syndrome; coral reefs; shipping route; coral cover; Java sea; Karimunjawa

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