Coral cover as a proxy of disturbance:A case study of the biodiversity of the hermatypic corals in Yongxing Island, Xisha Islands in the South China Sea  

作　　者：HUANG Hui LIAN Jiansheng HUANG Xiaoping HUANG Liangmin ZOU Renlin WANG Daoru 

机构地区：[1]South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China [2]Hainan Marine Development Plan and Design Research Institute, Haikou 570203, China

出　　处：《Chinese Science Bulletin》2006年第B12期129-135,共7页

基　　金：Acknowledgements We thank Prof Lin Yangtang of the Aquaculture Institute of South China Sea, Ms. Chen Wenqun of the 0cean Administration of Halnan Province, and our colleagues, Mr. Yue Weizhong and Li Yinghong for their helps in the field work. We are also grateful to Dr. Liu Sheng for providing helpful information. This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Grant Nos. 90211015 and 30200039） and the Innovative Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences （Grant No. KSCZ2-SW- 132）.

摘　　要：The Yongxing Island is the biggest island of Xisha Islands in the middle part of the South China Sea. It occupies 1.8 square kilometers of land area and has permanent residence on it. There are only a few papers on the coral community of the Xisha Islands, reporting the species composition, structure and zonations of the hermatypic coral community in 1970s. The present study describes the hermatypic coral community based on the quadrat survey after almost 30 years in Yongxing Island in August 2002. It was the first time to present the percent cover data of live corals of Yongxing Island via a systematic scheme of quantitative quadrat sampling. The average total percent cover of the live coral is 68.4%. We found the total percent cover (TPC) could be an idea proxy of the overall disturbance regime impinging on the coral community. TPC can be used as an integrated measure of disturbance to coral reef. Using this surrogate, the best fit relation between TPC of the live corals and species richness, species diversity, or the species evenness is the unimodal second-order polymorphic parabola equation. This result is expected by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH). From the fitted parabola equations, we calculated the best TPCs corresponding to the maximal species richness, the highest species diversity, or the most evenness respectively. They are surprisingly stabilized between 55% and 58%. Coralcover is the basic parameter widely available for most observation, research or monitoring programs. The good qualitative characteristics of percent cover provide powerful tool for the experimental, theoretical and modeling studies of coral reef in response to the disturbance.The Yongxing Island is the biggest island of Xisha Islands in the middle part of the South China Sea. It occupies 1.8 square kilometers of land area and has permanent residence on it. There are only a few papers on the coral community of the Xisha Islands, reporting the species composition, structure and zonations of the hermatypic coral community in 1970s. The present study describes the hermatypic coral community based on the quadrat survey after almost 30 years in Yongxing Island in August 2002. It was the first time to present the percent cover data of live corals of Yongxing Island via a systematic scheme of quantitative quadrat sampling. The average total percent cover of the live coral is 68.4%. We found the total percent cover （TPC） could be an idea proxy of the overall disturbance regime impinging on the coral community. TPC can be used as an integrated measure of disturbance to coral reef. Using this surrogate, the best fit relation between TPC of the live corals and species richness, species diversity, or the species evenness is the unimodal second-order polymorphic parabola equation. This result is expected by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis （IDH）. From the fitted parabola equations, we calculated the best TPCs corresponding to the maximal species richness, the highest species diversity, or the most evenness respectively. They are surprisingly stabilized between 55% and 58%. Coral cover is the basic parameter widely available for most observation, research or monitoring programs. The good qualitative characteristics of percent cover provide powerful tool for the experimental, theoretical and modeling studies of coral reef in response to the disturbance.

关 键 词：南海 西沙群岛 永兴岛 造礁珊瑚 生物多样性 扰动 

分 类 号：Q959.133[生物学—动物学] Q178.53