N. GBR - Pink (AUPS69)

Setting

This stretch of Parkinson Reef slopes gradually past 15 m in very murky water, 2-3 m of visibility, with a fine layer of silt over everything and sharks and large fish patrolling the gloom. This reef sits within a Preservation Zone.

What the data say

Point-count cover averaged 54%, with live coral led by Porites (40%), Echinopora (18%), and Montipora (14%), followed by Pachyseris (5.6%) and Merulina (4.2%); Anderson's photographs are a portrait gallery of notable colonies (cactus and lettuce corals, Pachyseris, Pavona, and massive poritids), not a sample of what the transect counted (Pectinia 0.9%, Pavona 2.8%). Transect mean 54 ± 7.4% SE (n = 4 transects; Living Oceans Foundation per-transect benthic data); the headline above is the expedition's station value.

What Anderson saw

One frame is a Pachyseris colony several meters across, its fine concentric ridges running unbroken over the reef like fingerprint whorls (e.g., Image 1).

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Another looks across a whole slope carpeted in pale, ruffled lettuce coral to the horizon of the reef, cover near total but noticeably washed-out in color, and some of that lettuce coral was indeed dead (e.g., Image 3).

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A third shows a bommie top where reticulated Porites rus branches meet a field of lumpy massive Porites studded with green algal tufts, and a close-up follows the P. rus growth form in detail (e.g., Image 2, Image 5).

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A giant clam with a chocolate-brown, green-flecked mantle fills the fifth (e.g., Image 4).

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Coral cover

• Reference: Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Global Reef Expedition (in situ transect)
• Transect mean 54 ± 7.4% SE (n = 4 transects; Living Oceans Foundation per-transect benthic data); the headline above is the expedition's station value.

Stressors

Anderson's notes record one crown-of-thorns starfish, photographed on dead framework (e.g., Image 7); some of the lettuce coral on his first transect (15 m) was dead, that transect also carried a lot of macroalgae, and a fine layer of silt covered everything.

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Fish and other fauna

Fauna included schools of small barracuda and the biggest Diadema urchins Anderson recorded on the entire trip.

Comparisons with other data

No prior survey data from this site. If you would like to share yours, please email us.