Recruitment Status of Coral Reefs (Scleractinian) after Earthquake and Tsunami in North Pagai Island of Mentawai Islands Regency
Abstract: Recruitment of coral
is marked by the appearance of reef colonies that are still juvenile. Coral
recruitment data after the earthquake and tsunami are very few either in
Indonesia or in other part of the world. The purpose of this study is to
analyze the level of recruitment and to analyze recruitment diversity of coral
reef Scleractinian in the waters affected by tsunami (west coast) and not
affected by tsunami (east coast) of North Pagai Island. The observation on
coral recruitment used benthic quadrate sampling method with a size of 1x1m2
and the diameter of colony taken measured between 0.5–10 cm. The result of the
study shows that the average of recruitment density at the west coast (affected
by tsunami) ranged between 0.78–3.67 colonies.m-2 and at the east coast (not
affected by tsunami) ranged between 5.11–11.67 colonies.m-2. Coral recruitment
level of the east coast is within the category of medium to very high while
coral recruitment level of the west coast is in very low to low category.
Diversity index (H') of east coast and west coast ranged between 1.55–2.54 with
medium category, evenness index (E) of east coast and west coast ranged between
0.87–0.97 with stable category, and dominance index (C) with values ranging
from 0.10–0.13 with low category.. Types of coral Porites cylindrica is growing
rapidly and has the highest level of recruitment after the tsunami.
Keywords: recruitment reef,
tsunami, coral, North Pagai Island
Author: Suparno Pranoto,
Arlius
Journal Code: jpperikanangg160072
