Tropical coral reef coral patterns in Indonesian shallow water areas close to underwater volcanic vents at Minahasa Seashore, and Mahengetang and Gunung Api Islands

摘要

Coral community patterns on some Indonesian reefs influenced by CO2 from underwater volcanic vents and nutrients from eutrophication pressures were examined. The overall aim of the study was to provide an insight into the significance of future ocean acidification compared to eutrophication pressures on tropical coral communities. Coral cover and seawater characteristics at acidified sites (with varied levels of eutrophication), i.e., moderate acidification (pH: 7.87 +/- 0.04), low acidification (pH: 8.01 +/- 0.04) and reference (pH: 8.2 +/- 0.02), were observed at reefs associated with Minahasa Seashore, and Mahengetang and Gunung Api Islands. Results showed that coral community patterns varied among locations and acidified sites, e.g., domination of families such as Alcyoniidae, Acroporidae, Poritidae and Heliporidae, and with different levels of abiotic cover. Surprisingly, pH was not detected as the major determining factor. This finding probably relates to tropical seawater temperatures being high enough to still allow for aragonite deposition even at pH values down to 7.8. Nutrients (phosphate and dissolved inorganic nitrogen) were shown to be the main determining factors that influenced community patterns on the observed coral reefs. Overall, the results indicate that tropical coral reef community patterns will continue to vary as pH decreases to the predicted oceanic value of pH 7.8 over the next 100 years, and bio-geo-ecological characteristics and anthropogenic pressures will be the major factors determining Indonesian tropical coral community structure, compared to pH.