Reefs of the northeastern Caribbean: I. Scleractinian populations
Edmunds PJ, Roberts DA, Singer R. 1990. Reefs of the northeastern Caribbean: I. Scleractinian populations. Bulletin of Marine Science. 46(3):780-789
Sclernctinian species composition,and abundance were determined on 12 shallow reefs (6 m deep). located on a total of 8 different islands within the Virgin Islands and as far south as Saba, Netherlands Antilles. The size of seleractinian colonies was measured on five reefs. Twenty one species werer found, and there were no major variations in coral diversity or evenness throughout the region. The: diversity at Saba was among the highest previously recorded in the Caribbean and may represent an "edge effect" as a result of its proximity to deep water. Colony sizes were significantly different between sites although variations were not consistent between sites. The most common corals throughout the region were Agaricia agaricites, Montastrea annularis, Porites astreoides, P. porites and Actepora cervicornis. On an average reef in the northeastern Caribbean these represent 25%, 17%, 16%, 15% and 7% of the coral colonies and have mean diameters of 4.0 cm, 24.0 cm, 6.0 cm, 5.3 cm and 12.4 cm respectively.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Edmunds, P.; Roberts, D.; Singer, R.
- Units
- BISC
- Keywords
- Acropora, Acropora cervicornis, Agaricia, Caribbean, Montastrea, Porites, Species Diversity, Staghorn coral, star coral, Stony corals, Virgin Islands