Coral reefs are among the most productive ecosystems on earth [1,2].  Coral reef areas were less than 0.1% of sea floors but they contain very high biodiversity that providing ecosystem goods and services for human and marine lives such as coastal protection, habitat for fisheries and attractive scenario for tourism [3]. Coral reefs are habitats for many fishes [4] for food security [5] and natural protection of the shore [6].  They also have recreational and cultural importance for local communities [2].

The greatest biodiversity of corals is found within the Coral Triangle, which includes Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.  It contains over 600 scleractinian coral species, accounting for nearly 75% of the world's reef coral species [7].  In Malaysia, coral reefs have previously been documented to cover almost 3,000 km² [1], however a latest estimation put the reef coverage of approximately 1,687 km² [8], with most of them located in Sabah.  [9] and [2] has documented a total number of 501 species of reef corals in Malaysia, with almost 80% (398 species) can be found on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.  In Peninsular Malaysia, coral reefs can be found in East, West and South Coast at several areas [10]  However, more than 90% of coral reefs in Malaysia are threatened by unsustainable fisheries, coastal development, pollution, thermal stress and coral bleaching [1].  There is much concern about the continuing deterioration of coral reefs in Malaysia. Thus, protection and proper management of coral reef areas are among the best recommendation for sustainable fisheries.

Limited scientific information on coral reef ecosystem of Pulau (=island) Seri Buat, one of the islands under Tioman Marine Park archipelago, has been documented. The only study on coral diversity of Pulau Seri Buat was done by [11].  Most of the studies were conducted at its sister island of Pulau[12-15].  Thus, this study was conducted to determine the coral community of Pulau Seri Buat, which includes the coral coverage, abundance and diversity.

Study Area 

Tioman archipelago, located on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, consists of nine islands namely, Pulau Chebeh, Pulau Gut, Pulau Labas, Pulau Sembilang, Pulau Sepoi, Pulau Seri Buat (PSB), Pulau Tokong Bahara, Pulau Tulai and Pulau Tioman itself. This archipelago was gazetted as Marine Park on 20^th October 1994 with the size of protected area of 7,720 ha.  PSB is the second largest island after Pulau Tioman. Its distance to the mainland is approximately 16 nm from Rompin, Pahang, 15 nm from Mersing, Johor and 18 nm to the west of Pulau Tioman.  This study was conducted from April to October 2016 at three sites on the northern part of the island (Figure 1).

Figure image is available in PDF File

Figure 1: Study sites (ST1-ST3) at Pulau Seri Buat, Pahang 

Survey Method

A coral community structure (diversity and health) was determined by transect that was laid at the seabed of the coral areas. The Point Intercept Transect method applied was from ‘Reef Check’ protocol [12], a well-established and reviewed method for assessing global coral health. A 100 meter transect was laid perpendicular to the shore at the depths between 3 to 6 meter, and diver swim along transect to record benthic community. Transect divided into four replicates with 20 meter per replicate and benthic community recorded for every 0.5 meter along transect.

Substrates were divided into 10 categories that include Scleractinian Corals, Non-scleractinian Corals, Recently Killed Corals, Nutrient Indicator Algae, Sponges, Rock, Rubble, Sand, Silt and Others. Coral Reef Health Criteria developed by [16] was used to calculate the live coral cover and classify the status of coral health (Table 1).

Table 1: Coral health criteria by Chou et al., (1994) 

Data Analysis

The Shannon Biodiversity Index (Hˈ) and Evenness (E) were calculated to determine the diversity of scleractinian corals at the study area. According to [17], the H index also known as 

information statistics indices is commonly used to characterize species diversity in a community. This was calculated using the Shannon-Wiener Index (Hⁱ), as per [18], as illustrated below.

Hⁱ

Where, H is the Shannon-Wiener diversity index. Pi is the relative proportion (n/N) of the individual of one particular species found. It entailed dividing (n) number of an individual species by the total number of all species individual numbers (N) found in a particular environment. LNPi was natural logarithm (LN) of the value Pi. Lastly, the symbol implied (Ʃ) summation of the outputs with the final value multiplied by negative one (–1). Another variable, the Evenness (H_E) of respective ecosystems was determined, as per [18] , as equation below.

Where, E was the determined evenness whereas H was the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and H_Max was the natural logarithm of the number of specific categories/types of species in the sampled ecosystem (LN(n)). The interpretation Shannon-Weiner index is if H has a bigger number, it is more diverse and if E close to 1, the species are well distributed.

The Relative Abundance (RA) analysis was calculated based on Rilov & Benahayu (1998) formula as showed below:

RA = (Pi / P total) × 100

where Pi is pooled living coverage of the i^th species from all transects at a given site; P total is pooled total living coverage of all species in all transects at a given site. The values used for abundance categories (%) are represented with ‘*’ as follows: not recorded (RA=0) as ‘-‘, rare (0<RA<0.1) as ‘*’, uncommon (0.1<RA<1) as ‘**’, common (1<RA<10) as ‘***’, abundant (10<RA<20) as ‘****’, and dominant (RA>20) as ‘*****’.

Benthic community categorised into 10 classes i.e. scleractinian coral, soft (non-scleractinian) coral, recently killed coral, nutrient indicator algae, sponges, rock, rubble, sand, silt and others (i.e.: sea anemone). ST1 belonged in the “Good” category with Live Coral Cover (LCC) of 69%. Other substrates that were observed at this site were abiotic components i.e. rock (28%) and rubbles (2%). ST2 has the second highest LCC (49%) and fitted into the “Fair” category. This site also covered by rock (31%) and sand (13%). The lowest LCC was at ST3 with 40% LCC, 35% rock and 16% sand. Soft coral, recently killed coral and sponges were not recorded at any sites. Overall, the mean LCC for PSB was 52.6%. and categorised as “Good” (Figure 2). 

Figure image is available in PDF Format

Figure 2: Benthic community proportion of PSB.

A total of 30 genera of scleractinian corals belongs to 11 family and 2 scleractinian incertae sedis were discovered at Pulau Seri Buat (Table 2). The most common genera were Acropora and Porites which were found in abundant at every station.  Pachyseris, Trachyphyllia and Leptastrea were the least common genera which can only be found at ST2, ST1 and ST2 respectively.

In total, 387 numbers of coral colony were observed throughout the survey (Table 3).  Highest number of colonies was observed at ST1 with 24 genera. However, the differences in genus composition between the sites were minor.  The Shannon Biodiversity Index (Hˈ) for ST1, ST2 and ST3 was 1.42, 1.35 and 0.97, respectively, while Evenness Index (E_H) was 0.45 at ST1, 0.43 (ST2) and 0.31 (ST3).  This result showed that ST1 had the highest coral diversity and the highest evenness index, while ST3 has the lowest indices values among the three sites.

Table 2: Coral genera and their Relative Abundance (RA) 

RA: ‘-’ = not recorded; ‘*’ = rare; ‘**’ = uncommon; ‘***’ = common; ‘****’ = abundant; ‘*****’ = dominant.

Table 3: Number of genera, colony and diversity indices for each site in PSB. 

Few information can be derived to compare and determine the conditions of coral reefs in this island. In this study, a total of 30 genera from 11 families and 2 scleractinian incerta sedis were identified. The number of genera recorded was lower than the previous study 

by [11], where they recorded 40 genera in PSB.   They also recorded Oxypora crassispinosa, that can be only found in The Philippines, which was no longer observed in this present study.

Coral communities were typically dominated by Acopora and Porites, which can be found at all sites. [11]also recorded 21.3 % of Acropora in PSB compared to non-Acropora corals (26.9%). Dominancy of Acropora was also reported in other nearby islands.  Recent study by [19]at Pulau Mertang, Johor, about 4 km to the southwest of PSB, recorded 25 different genera from 12 families of scleractinian corals, with Acropora and Montipora were the dominant corals. Latest coral diversity study on its sister island of Pulau Tioman by [15] reported 67 genera of scleractinian corals with three dominant corals of Acropora, Montipora and Porites. The differences in number of genera between PSB and Pulau Tioman disclosed a higher coral diversity in Pulau Tioman.  All genera found at PSB have been reported by [15] in Pulau Tioman, except for genus Seriatopora, which can be commonly found at ST3.

Biodiversity index, range from 0.97 to 1.42, indicated that this study area had a variety of scleractinian corals. ST1 was recorded the highest index followed by ST2 and ST3. ST1 also showed the highest number of genera and colonies. [20] stated that diversity is a total number of the taxa and species as well as the coverage of the taxa.

Overall, coral health for PSB was in good condition with mean LCC of 52.6%. The LCC was slightly lower than Pulau Tioman (59.48% in 2016), but it was higher than the average LCC for Malaysia (43.71% in 2016)[21]. The present live coral cover showed increment while recently dead coral decreased compared the previous study by [11] (48.2% LCC and 1.9% of recently dead coral). However, [11] only managed to conduct a survey at one site that appeared to be subjected to a high sediment load.  The island is uninhabited and relatively close to the mainland and this can have an effect on growth of the corals. Ecosystems around the world will be affected by human activities near and off the coast [22,23]The live coral cover will increase if the impact of environmental stress is reduced.

This study shows that the community structure of coral reef in PSB was diverse and in good condition. Even though it was located quite isolated from Marine Park Centre of Pulau Tioman, the coral community was not much differed from the Pulau Tioman itself. This coral assessment could provide the authorities some insight of the community of coral reefs in the island.  Further studies need to be conducted especially on associate’s marine lives such as fishes and invertebrates in order to get bigger and clearer pictures of coral reef ecosystems of PSB.   

The authors wish to thanks to the Division of Marine Park and Resource Management (previously known as Department of Marine Park Malaysia) Department of Fisheries Malaysia for the funding of this study. The assistance of Marine Park Pahang and Marine Park Johor staffs is greatly acknowledged.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

No funding sources

The study was approved by theFisheries Research Institute, Batu Maung

1. Burke, L., Reytar, K., Spalding, M., & Perry, A. (2012).  Reefs at Risk Revisited. World Resources Institute. 86pp.

2. Waheed, Z. (2016). Patterns of coral species richness and reef connectivity in Malaysia. PhD thesis. Leiden University.

3. Wild, C., Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Naumann, M.S., Colombo-Pallotta, M.F., Ateweberhan, M., Fitt, W.K., Iglesias-Prieto, R., Palmer, C., Bythell, J.C., Ortiz, J.-C., Loya, Y., & van Woesiket, R. (2011). Climate change impedes scleractinian corals as primary reef ecosystem engineers. Marine & Freshwater Research, 62, 205–215.

4. Coker, D.J., Wilson, S., & Pratchett, M.S. (2013). Importance of live coral habitat for reef fishes. Rev. Fish. Biol. Fisheries, 24(1), 89-126.

5. Foale, S., Adhuri, D., Aliño, P., Allison, E.H., Andrew, N., Cohen, P., Evans, L., Fabinyi, M., Fidelman, P., Gregory, C., Stacey, N., Tanzer, J.,  & Weeratunge, N. (2013). Food security and the Coral Triangle Initiative. Marine Policy, 38, 174–183.

6. Villanoy, C., David, L., Cabrera, O., Atrigenio, M., Siringan, F., Aliño, P., & Villaluz, M. (2012). Coral reef ecosystems protect shore from high-energy waves under climate change scenarios. Climatic Change, 112, 493–505.

7. Veron, J., Stafford-Smith, M., DeVantier, L., & Turak, E. (2015). Overview of distribution patterns of zooxanthellate Scleractinia. Frontiers in Marine Science, 1, 81.

8. Cros, A., Venegas-Li, R., Teoh, S.J., Peterson, N., Wen, W., & Fatan, N.A. (2014). Spatial data quality control for the coral triangle atlas. Coastal Management, 42(2), 128-142.

9. Huang, D., Hoeksema, B.W., Affendi, Y.A., Ang, P.O., Chen, C.A., Huang, H., Lane, D.J.W., Licuanan, W.Y., Vibol, O., Vo, S.T., Yeemin, T. & Chou, L.M. (2016). Conservation of reef corals in the South China Sea based on species and evolutionary diversity. Biodivers. Conserv., 25(2), 331-344.

10. Affendi, Y.A., & Rosman, F.R. (2012). Current knowledge on sclerectinian coral diversity of Peninsular Malaysia. In: Kamarruddin I., Mohamed C.A.R., Rozaimi M.J., Kee A.A.A., Fitra A.Z, Lee J.N. (eds). Malaysia’s marine biodiversity: Inventory and current status. Department of Marine Park Malaysia, Putrajaya, pp. 21-31.

11. Harborne, A., Fenner, D., Barnes, A., Beger, M., Harding, S., & Roxburgh, T. (2000). Status report on the coral reefs of the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Report prepared to Department of Fisheries Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

12. Hyde, J., Yee, C.S., & Chelliah, A. (2013). Five Years of Reef Check Monitoring Data for Tioman, Perhentian and Redang Island. Malaysian Journal of Science, 32, 117-126. 10.22452/mjs.vol32 no3.11.

13. Kamarumtham, K., Ahmad, Z., Halid, N.H., Saad, S., Khodzori, M.F.A., Yusof, M.H., & Hanafiah, M.F.M. (2016). Diversity and distribution of coral lifeforms in Tioman Island. Transaction on Science & Technology, 3(2-2), 367-373.

14. Shahbudin, S., Fikri Akmal, K., Faris, S., Normawaty, M.N., & Mukai, Y. (2017). Current status of coral reefs in Tioman Island, Peninsular Malaysia. Turk. J. Zool., 41, 294-305.

15. Akmal, K.F., Shahbudin, S., Faiz, M.H.M., & Muhammad, Y. (2019). Diversity and abundance of scleractinian corals in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia: A case study of Redang and Tioman Islands. Ocean Sci. J., 2019.

16. Chou, L.M., Wilkinson, C.R., Licuanan, W.R.Y., Aliño, P., Cheshire, A.C., Loo, M.G.K., Tangjaitrong, S., Ridzwan, A.R.., & Soekarno. (1994). Status of coral reefs in the ASEAN region. In Sudara, S., Wilkinson, C.R., and Chou, L.M. (eds). Proc. Third ASEAN-Australia Symp. on Living Coastal Resources, 1,1-10.

17. Sarma, D., & Das, D. (2015). Application of Shannon's Index to study diversity with reference to census data of Assam. Asian Journal of Management Research, 5(4), 635-643.

18. Zar, J.H. (2010). Biostatistical analysis. 5^th. Ed. Prentice-Hall/Pearson, 944p.

19. Ismail, M.S., & Khoo, M.L. (2019). Community structure of coral reefs in Pulau Mertang, Johor, Malaysia. Sains Malaysiana, 48(11), 2335–2342.

20. Paulay, G. (1997). Diversity and distribution of reef organisms. In: Life and death of coral reefs. Birkeland, C. (eds.). Chapman & Hall, London. pp. 298-345.

21. Reef Check Malaysia. (2017). Status of coral reefs in Malaysia, 2016. Reef Check Malaysia.

22. Martínez, M. L., Intralawan, A., Vázquez, G., Pérez-Maqueo, O., Sutton, P., & Landgrave, R. (2007). The coasts of our world: Ecological, economic and social importance. Ecological economics, 63(2-3), 254-272.

23. Halpern, B. S., Walbridge, S., Selkoe, K. A., Kappel, C. V., Micheli, F., D'Agrosa, C., ... & Watson, R. (2008). A global map of human impact on marine ecosystems. science, 319(5865), 948-952.