Abundance and community structure of reef building corals in Lakshadweep Islands, India

Coral reefs were surveyed at three islands (Kavaratti, Kadmat and Agatti) of Lakshadweep during February 2005 using the Line Intercept Transect method. The percent coverage of coral in all the three islands was good (55%), dominated by Acropora spp. (33 %) of the live coral cover. Twenty three genera of corals are reported with two new records for the Lakshadweep islands. No apparent bleaching and crown-ofthorns starfish (COTS) related mortality of coral was observed in the three islands. The abundance and distribution of corals and associated biota were recorded along with the characterization of the benthic communities at these sites.