About
Data name: Soft_Corals_Reef
Description: Visual surveys of octocoral communities (soft corals and sea fans) on 163 GBR reefs Octocorals contain taxa with and without endosymbiotic microalgae (zooxanthellae), and these two groups have contrasting distributions and ecological niches (Fabricius and De’ath 2008). Richness is therefore presented as number of taxa with and without zooxanthellae.
The data set also contains visual estimates of the cover of the main benthos groups such as hard corals, soft corals, macroalgae and crustose coralline algae (unit: percent cover), and estimates of some aspects of the physical environmental conditions at that site such as slope angle, visibility and sedimentation.
Data are based on swim surveys by one experienced observer (KF) along ~200 m following the reef contour at each of up to 5 depth zones (between 18 m depth and the reef flat) at each of one to three sites per reef. The data are based on reef-averaged data.
Units: richness: number of zooxanthellate taxa per reef; number of azooxanthellate taxa per reef; total number of taxa per reef; cover of benthos groups: reef-averaged mean percentage of total surface; slope angle: degrees; sedimentation: 4-point rating; wave action: ; flow speed: cm/s; visibility (a measure of water clarity): m.
Owner Institution: Australian Institute of Marine Science
Custodian: Katharina Fabricius (AIMS)
Region: GBR
References:
- Fabricius KE & Death G (2001a) Environmental factors associated with the spatial distribution of crustose coralline algae on the Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs, 19: 303-309
- Fabricius KE & Death G (2001b) Biodiversity on the Great Barrier Reef: Large-scale patterns and turbidity-related local loss of soft coral taxa. In: Oceanographic processes of coral reefs: physical and biological links in the Great Barrier Reef (ed. Wolanski E), pp. 127 - 144. CRC Press, London
- Fabricius KE & Death G (2008) Photosynthetic symbionts and energy supply determine octocoral biodiversity in coral reefs. Ecology 89: 3163:3173

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