ANALYSIS OF CORAL’S COVER AND CORAL’S MORTALITY INDEX AROUND PAGAI STRAIT, MENTAWAI
ABSTRACT: Coral that live in
tropical waters that sensitive to environment changes, especially temperature,
salinity, sedimentation and eutrophication. Pagai Strait at Mentawai is part of
the Indian Ocean which lies between North Pagai and South Pagai Island. Pagai
Strait island located in the region which is the path of collision between two
plates (Eurasia and Indo-Australia) and high tectonic activities. Some Mentawai
Tsunami led severely damaged to most of the Mentawai waters. This study aims to
determine of Coral Bleaching phenomenon and the impact of Tsunami, to coral
reefs in the Pagai Strait. The method is Line Intercept Transect (LIT) and held
in April 2016. The study was conducted on Sijao-jao, Siruso and Tunang Bulag.
Observations did on the current, parameters of waters, the percent cover of
live coral and dead coral, algae, abiotic and other biota. The result of this
research shows that current’s velocity is 0,2 – 0,48 m/sec. Some parameters
such as temperature, TDS and salinity out of range of the treshold. pH and
visibility are still in the range. Sijao-jao has the percent of coral cover
20,17% (poor) and IM 0,767; Siruso with coral cover 30,45% (moderate) and IM
0,544; while Tunang Bulag has coral cover 25,08% (moderate) and IM 0,451.
Acropora sp is the most vulnerable of
coral bleaching.
Keywords: coral, coral’s cover
percentage, Mortality Index, coral bleaching, Mentawai
Penulis: Herdianan Mutmainah,
Rani Santa Clara
Kode Jurnal: jpperikanandd160172
