Oman - Cave Site (Muscat)

Setting

A high-cover fringing reef beneath a rocky Muscat headland, where encrusting and tiered foliose Montipora, brain corals, massive Porites, and green branching Acropora form a nearly continuous framework cut by sand gullies, shaded crevices, and small overhangs (e.g., Image 5, Image 6, Image 7, Image 9, Image 11, Image 12, Image 13, Image 15, Image 16, Image 17, Image 19, Image 20).

56791112131516171920

General benthic features

Coral-on-coral contact margins are everywhere — space, not substrate, is the limiting resource (e.g., Image 1).

1

Coral cover

• Reference: Mayfield (2025)
• CoralNet submission package
• Hard coral cover was 51% (CoralNet point annotation; Mayfield 2025, Platax), with soft coral 11% and turf algae 11%.
• Published hard coral cover 51% (Mayfield 2025, Platax, Table 1; CoralNet point annotation, 30 points per photo, hard coral as a share of benthic points with water and fish excluded).
• Sample sizes: published point count 170 photos · CoralNet 106 · DINOv3 151 · CoralSCOP 149.
• This CoralSCOP and DINOv3 estimate is provisional and may be updated if a stronger coral-cover model is found.

Stressors

These May 2024 surveys came before the seasonal SST peak; NOAA CRW recorded Alert Level 2 heat stress and bleaching was reported along this coast from July 2024, weeks after the surveys. Bleaching was already visible on two colonies: one small lobe in a field of brown leather corals was stark white, a bleached soft coral (e.g., Image 44), and the overhanging lower lobe of a dark encrusting-to-plating colony had a broad stark-white rim, partial bleaching of one hard coral's margin (e.g., Image 13).

44

Fish and other fauna

Clark's anemonefish in their host anemones, a honeycomb moray, a camouflaged scorpionfish, and schooling grunts headline the fauna (e.g., Image 2, Image 3, Image 4, Image 8, Image 14).

234814

A large pink-and-red cushion star rested on coralline-crusted rock beside a plating colony (e.g., Image 25).

25

Comparisons with other data

Coral cover — external cross-reference (Reef Check). Two independent measurements, reported side by side and deliberately not averaged. Anderson Mayfield / CRD: 51% hard coral (2024). Reef Check: 14% at Novice Bay, Bandar Khayran, 0.93 km away (2017, 1 survey). The two are 7 years apart (CRD later). Methods differ (CRD photographic/point-count index vs Reef Check point-intercept transect). Reef Check site positions are approximate; at 0.93 km apart the two surveys may have sampled different patches of the same reef, which is the main caveat on this comparison.