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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Correlations Between Reef Health And Vertical Zonation On Ushongo Village Reef And Fungu Zinga Reef, Daniel Gates
Correlations Between Reef Health And Vertical Zonation On Ushongo Village Reef And Fungu Zinga Reef, Daniel Gates
Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection
While the existence of vertical zonation on coral reefs is well-known, the driving mechanisms and the influence each has is not clear. This study seeks to investigate the influence of reef health on vertical zonation. Reef health is used as a potential factor since it is essentially a broad description of reef diversity. Therefore, a healthy reef which is very diverse is likely to have more and different interspecies interactions than an unhealthy one. This project investigates whether these altered interactions results in different depth distributions of various coral types, categorized broadly by colony shape. Reef health did not seem …
The Influence Of Habitat Preference On Longitudinal Population Composition And Distribution Of Groupers (Serranidae) In Chumbe Island Coral Park, Zanzibar Tanzania, Caroline Daley
Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection
A survey of six common grouper (Serranidae) species was conducted on both the western protected and eastern unprotected reefs around Chumbe Island. Species, estimated maturity, and fundamental niche and general habitat preference was extrapolated based on observed realized niche and qualified according to substrate, depth, slope position, and general reef region. Abundance, biomass density, and biodiversity of Serranid populations were compared among locations on the reef with habitat preference in mind in order to best assess how habitat influences population composition, distribution, and health. The results of this study provide depth to previous research on the protected reef and indicate …