Baseline Survey on Coral Diseases, Stress Factors and New Threats in Coral Reefs of Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere, India

Abstract

Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve (GOMMBRE) is the first marine biosphere reserve in India and Southeast Asia. It has a rich marine biodiversity including coral reefs, but now facing threats from different environmental factors and anthropogenic interferences. Particularly, coral reefs distributed in the 21 islands under the Gulf of Mannar (GoM) region are facing critical threats. Although several institutions and authors have studied various aspects on corals, direct and indirect influences of natural and anthropogenic catastrophes on corals have been poorly understood. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to identify the anthropogenic disturbances, biological stress factors and diseases on fringing reefs of GoM. The present study reveals that dead coral reefs are being replaced by assemblage of marine algae. Although several diseases were recorded during this study, pink line disease is wide spread in all the islands. Porites sp. and Acropora sp. were the more affected corals. This baseline data lays foundations to survey and to assess the rapid changes that occur over a period of time in coral reefs of GoM.