Resilience drivers in some coral reef sites in Wadi El-Gemal marine protected area, Southern Egyptian Red Sea

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the resilience status of the coral reef ecosystem in Wadi El-Gemal-Hamata National park, Southern Red Sea. Six resilience drivers (coral diversity, coral diseases, anthropogenic impacts, herbivores biomass, recruitment, and algae) have been chosen to be assessed in the different sites. Data were collected seasonally in the period from August 2015 to July 2016 using SCUBA diving from three inshore and two offshore reef sites. Offshore sites, Wadi El-Gemal and Suyul Islands recorded higher coral cover, higher fish abundance, and biomass, fewer algae, than inshore sites. Coral cover recorded 82.3% in the exposed sites compared to 63% in the sheltered sites. The average abundance of hard and soft corals was higher in the exposed sites with 91 and 5.4 colonies/125m2, respectively. Massive corals were more abundant in the exposed sites (67) than in the sheltered sites (15). On contrary, branched corals had a higher number in sheltered sites (34 colonies/ 125m2) than the exposed sites (23 colonies/125m2). The average biomass of grazer, browser, and excavator fishes was higher in the exposed sites than in the sheltered sites with 9581g, 4601g, and 1029g/250m2, respectively. Whereas the average biomass of scrapers was higher in sheltered sites (902g/250m2) than in exposed sites (678g/250m2). The new coral colonies of different sizes had almost the same density in both exposed and sheltered sites. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that resilience factors varied significantly among sites. Based on resilience factors evaluation in this study, offshore sites are more resilient than onshore sites.

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Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries
Volume 25, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
January and February 2021
Pages 699-720

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