Corallivore Abundance and Biomass and Coral Reef Degradation in the Line Islands: Christmas Island, Fanning Island, and Palmyra Atoll
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This paper seeks a relationship between corallivore abundance and biomass in the Line Islands and coral reef degradation/anthropogenic influence in these locales. Specifically, three randomly chosen sites at each of Palmyra Atoll, Fanning Island, and Christmas Island, were tested. Through six thirty-meter transects, abundance of predetermined Chaetodon and Labropsis were tallied and run through a GMAV 5 statistical package with an ANOVA analysis to determine significance between islands. However, no significance was observed between islands but was found within the nested sites (P=0.0133). Using a biomass equation, abundances were converted into average biomass calculations both by island and site. Again, the differences in biomass were not significant between islands and were skewed by two isolated sites: one each from Site 1 of Christmas Island and Site 4 of Palmyra Atoll. Corallivore biomass, when plotted with live coral cover in the same sites, showed no significance nor correlation. The two outlying sites differ from the remaining locations in their shallow depth (at or less than one meter in depth) and protection from major wave motion and currents. This suggests that corallivores are dependent not on the availability of live coral cover but are limited in their migration scope as small demersal species and thus must live in shallow and protected areas. While the primary food source of these corallivores is nutrient-packed, other lower functionalist groups may have different requirements for continued existence. However, it appears that the corallivores of the Line Islands are impervious to anthropogenic influences in the selected islands.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 9, 2005 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Donahue, Shannon |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford@SEA |
|---|---|
| Subject | S-199 |
| Subject | Hopkins Marine Station |
| Subject | Department of Biology |
| Subject | Department of Earth System Science |
| Subject | BIOHOPK 182H |
| Subject | BIOHOPK 323H |
| Subject | EARTHSYS 323 |
| Subject | ESS 323 |
| Subject | corallivore |
| Subject | Line Islanda |
| Subject | reef degradation |
| Subject | anthropogenic influence |
| Subject | Palmyra Atoll |
| Subject | Fanning Island |
| Subject | Christmas Island |
| Subject | Kiribati Island |
| Subject | Chaetodon |
| Subject | Labropsis |
| Subject | biomass |
| Genre | Student project report |
Bibliographic information
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- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Donahue, Shannon. 2005. Corallivore Abundance and Biomass and Coral Reef Degradation in the Line Islands: Christmas Island, Fanning Island, and Palmyra Atoll. Unpublished Student Work, S-199, Stanford@SEA, Stanford Digital Repository. https://purl.stanford.edu/wf839km6990.
Collection
Stanford@SEA -- Student papers
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- thalassa@stanford.edu
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