Al-Jabri,M.
Marine epilithic algal communities on artificial and natural substrates Technical Report
no. 5, 1996.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, coral, developing, Green turtles, growth, Gulf of Oman, habitat, marine, monitoring, Oman, pollution, productivity, salinity, temperature, turtles
@techreport{,
title = {Marine epilithic algal communities on artificial and natural substrates },
author = {Al-Jabri,M.},
year = {1996},
date = {1996-01-01},
volume = {FSC 1580-91 },
number = {5},
pages = {1-15},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION The Epilithic Algal Community (EAC) of coral reefs are diverse assemblages of small filamentous green, red, blue-green algae ('turf species') and crustose coralline red algal. These have low biomass but show rapid growth rate (Klumpp and Mckinnon, 1989) and this algal community colonizes the reefs and serves as the primary food source for herbivores. The diversity and richness of reef fauna can also be attributed largely to the high productivity of EAC (Klumpp and Mckinnon, 1989); thus the EAC is the major source of food for herbivores such as damselfish, echinoids, surgeonfish (sohal and yellow tail), parrotfish and green turtles. The main algal functional form group (Littler et a¡.,1983) is the filamentous group. In the Arabian Sea, however, there is a diverse algal community of filamentous, sheet-group, coarsely branched group and thick leathery group due to upwelling, (Mardela, 1975, Jupp et al, 1996). The Gulf of Oman does not experience upwelling due to the summer S.W. monsoon, so in this part of Oman, because of the physical conditions prevailing, there are high salinities and temperatures in summer as well as wide temperature variation and, combined with largely sand substrates here, coral reefs are not as widely distributed as in many tropical seas and their growth and diversity is not as great. In spite of this, they still contribute a highly complex community (Sheppard and Salm, 1988). During the past three decades, many of the natural marine habitats in the world and Arabian Gulf in particular are being destroyed, degraded or are actually disappearing as a result of oil pollution, coastal infilling and other activities associated with industrial development. Because the EAC is very important for grazers, many studies on natural reefs and artificial reefs structures including oil platforms, piers, jetties and other coastal installations have been carried out (Seaman and Sprague, 1991). Artificial habitat enhancement has been practiced primarily to attract fishes in various parts of the world, however in Oman there are no studies yet that have been made to understand the mechanisms of attractive effect of artificial structures. In addition, few studies on reef coral community and no detailed study of EAC have been carried out in Oman with studies along the Gulf of Oman just mentioning few macroalgae and green filamentous algae, e.g. Entromorpha (Sheppard and Salm, 1988). On the Gulf of Oman coasts, only sparse clumps of larger macroalgae (>10cm) of sheet-group, coarsely branched and thick leathery groups are found (Mardela, 1975) with, for example, only scattered plants such as Padina and Halymenia (Cordero, 1992). In view of the importance of EAC on natural and artificial reefs this preliminary study will provide valuable baseline biological data about the growth of algae as well as the faunal assemblages that accumulate around artificial substrates. Data from this study would be useful to assist researchers in the future in monitoring herbivorous fish resources as well as the succession of communities developing on artificial reefs.},
keywords = {Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, coral, developing, Green turtles, growth, Gulf of Oman, habitat, marine, monitoring, Oman, pollution, productivity, salinity, temperature, turtles},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {techreport}
}
INTRODUCTION The Epilithic Algal Community (EAC) of coral reefs are diverse assemblages of small filamentous green, red, blue-green algae ('turf species') and crustose coralline red algal. These have low biomass but show rapid growth rate (Klumpp and Mckinnon, 1989) and this algal community colonizes the reefs and serves as the primary food source for herbivores. The diversity and richness of reef fauna can also be attributed largely to the high productivity of EAC (Klumpp and Mckinnon, 1989); thus the EAC is the major source of food for herbivores such as damselfish, echinoids, surgeonfish (sohal and yellow tail), parrotfish and green turtles. The main algal functional form group (Littler et a¡.,1983) is the filamentous group. In the Arabian Sea, however, there is a diverse algal community of filamentous, sheet-group, coarsely branched group and thick leathery group due to upwelling, (Mardela, 1975, Jupp et al, 1996). The Gulf of Oman does not experience upwelling due to the summer S.W. monsoon, so in this part of Oman, because of the physical conditions prevailing, there are high salinities and temperatures in summer as well as wide temperature variation and, combined with largely sand substrates here, coral reefs are not as widely distributed as in many tropical seas and their growth and diversity is not as great. In spite of this, they still contribute a highly complex community (Sheppard and Salm, 1988). During the past three decades, many of the natural marine habitats in the world and Arabian Gulf in particular are being destroyed, degraded or are actually disappearing as a result of oil pollution, coastal infilling and other activities associated with industrial development. Because the EAC is very important for grazers, many studies on natural reefs and artificial reefs structures including oil platforms, piers, jetties and other coastal installations have been carried out (Seaman and Sprague, 1991). Artificial habitat enhancement has been practiced primarily to attract fishes in various parts of the world, however in Oman there are no studies yet that have been made to understand the mechanisms of attractive effect of artificial structures. In addition, few studies on reef coral community and no detailed study of EAC have been carried out in Oman with studies along the Gulf of Oman just mentioning few macroalgae and green filamentous algae, e.g. Entromorpha (Sheppard and Salm, 1988). On the Gulf of Oman coasts, only sparse clumps of larger macroalgae (>10cm) of sheet-group, coarsely branched and thick leathery groups are found (Mardela, 1975) with, for example, only scattered plants such as Padina and Halymenia (Cordero, 1992). In view of the importance of EAC on natural and artificial reefs this preliminary study will provide valuable baseline biological data about the growth of algae as well as the faunal assemblages that accumulate around artificial substrates. Data from this study would be useful to assist researchers in the future in monitoring herbivorous fish resources as well as the succession of communities developing on artificial reefs.