Timor-Leste

Spalding et al. (2001) give East Timor no separate account or reef-area figure. Its coast appears on the maps of their Indonesia chapter, and Timor falls in the sub-region they call the Moluccas and Irian Jaya, which includes a chain of small archipelagos along the southern edge of the Banda Sea running east from Timor to the Aru Islands. They describe that sub-region as one of complex bathymetry and deep, mostly clear oceanic water, with islands a few tens of kilometers apart sometimes separated by more than 1,000 m. In the Timor Sea, surface currents flow west throughout the year, and a 1990 image in the same chapter shows Luang and Ukenao atolls lying east of East Timor. Souter et al. (2021) report that by December 2020 the Allen Coral Atlas had produced detailed satellite-derived reef maps of the Timor and Arafura Seas.

Eight of the nine Timor-Leste pins are sites around Atauro Island, dived between 29 January and 1 February 2024. The ninth is a general Atauro Island pin with no dive record of its own. The sites run from a 2 m snorkel garden at Compass Reef and the shallow Inner Reef to a steep coral ridge at Raiketa, the upper terrace of Biqueli Wall, and the deep, dim Pinnacle, dived to 35.7 m. Haruine was dived by day and after dark.

Branching Acropora is the dominant community. Raiketa, Haruine, Biqueli Wall, and the single surviving frame from Watuwai all show near-continuous tan staghorn thickets, often under dense clouds of damselfish, fusiliers, and anthias; at Haruine thousands of small blue damselfish hovered over the thickets. Inner Reef had the widest mix of growth forms, with columnar and lobate Porites, branching and plating Acropora, mauve Pocillopora, and large tube-sponge clusters. Cabbage Patch is named for a colossal dome of folded foliose coral on a sand slope. Pinnacle differed from the rest: a turf-covered framework with scattered Porites heads, plating corals, big finger, and tube sponges, and an unusually high density of feather stars.

Photo-derived cover estimates ranged from 31.7% at Pinnacle to 44.5% at Inner Reef, where the two computer vision methods differ most (38.4% and 50.6%); Raiketa (41.3%) was the only other station above 40%. Every site mixed dense coral with rubble, sand, or older framework, most starkly at Biqueli Wall, where a single live table coral stood in a broad field of coralline-crusted dead Acropora rubble. No reef-wide bleaching was apparent. Local flags included pale or white colonies at Raiketa, Inner Reef, Pinnacle, and Compass Reef, recent basal tissue loss on a large Porites at Cabbage Patch, and a crown-of-thorns seastar in one Inner Reef frame.

Giant clams were wedged into the framework at Inner Reef, and Compass Reef combined a dense mixed coral garden with a seagrass-fringed flat of small massive colonies.

Spalding et al. (2001) la fó relatóriu separadu ka númeru área ahu-ruin nian ba Timor-Leste (East Timor). Ninia kosta mosu iha mapa sira kapítulu Indonézia nian, no Timor tama iha sub-rejiaun ne'ebé sira bolu Moluccas and Irian Jaya, ne'ebé inklui kadeia arkipélagu ki'ik sira iha rohan súl Tasi Banda nian (Banda Sea), ne'ebé la'o husi Timor ba leste to'o Illa Aru (Aru Islands). Sira deskreve sub-rejiaun ne'e nu'udar fatin ho batimetria kompleksu no bee oseániku kle'an ne'ebé barak liu moos, ho illa sira ne'ebé dook malu de'it kilómetru sanulu balun, maibé dala ruma fahe malu husi tasi ne'ebé kle'an liu 1,000 m. Iha Tasi Timor (Timor Sea), korrente tasi nian iha superfísie suli ba oeste durante tinan tomak, no imajen ida husi 1990 iha kapítulu hanesan hatudu atol Luang no Ukenao, ne'ebé iha Timor-Leste nia leste. Souter et al. (2021) relata katak to'o Dezembru 2020, Allen Coral Atlas prodús ona mapa ahu-ruin detalladu ne'ebé bazeia ba satélite ba Tasi Timor no Tasi Arafura (Arafura Sea).

Pin ualu husi pin sia Timor-Leste nian mak fatin sira iha Illa Ataúru (Atauro Island) nia leet, ho mergullu entre 29 Janeiru no 1 Fevereiru 2024. Pin da-sia mak pin jerál ida ba Illa Ataúru ne'ebé la iha rejistu mergullu rasik. Fatin sira ne'e hahú husi jardín snorkel ho kle'an 2 m iha Compass Reef no Inner Reef ne'ebé la kle'an, to'o foho-lolon ahu-ruin ne'ebé tuun maka'as iha Raiketa, teras leten husi Biqueli Wall, no Pinnacle ne'ebé kle'an no nakukun, ne'ebé mergullu to'o 35.7 m. Iha Haruine, mergullu iha loron no mós iha kalan.

Komunidade ne'ebé domina mak Acropora ho sanak (branching). Raiketa, Haruine, Biqueli Wall, no foto ida de'it ne'ebé sei iha husi Watuwai, hotu-hotu hatudu staghorn kór-kafé kinur ne'ebé moris metin hamutuk no besik kontínuu, dala barak iha okos kalohan ikan barak, hanesan damselfish, fusilier, no anthias; iha Haruine, damselfish azúl ki'ik rihun ba rihun hela iha staghorn sira-nia leten. Inner Reef iha forma moris (growth forms) ne'ebé varia liu, ho Porites kolunár no lobadu, Acropora ho sanak no forma prato, Pocillopora kór-roxu mamar, no grupu boot esponja tubu nian. Cabbage Patch hetan naran husi kúpula boot tebes ida husi ahu-ruin foliose ne'ebé dobra-dobra, iha rai-henek ne'ebé tuun. Pinnacle la hanesan fatin seluk: estrutura ne'ebé turf taka, ho ulun Porites ne'ebé fahe-fahe, ahu-ruin forma prato, esponja liman-fuan no tubu ne'ebé boot, no densidade fitun-tasi penas (feather stars) ne'ebé aas liu baibain.

Estimativa kobertura husi foto hahú husi 30.1% iha Biqueli Wall to'o 48.5% iha Inner Reef, fatin ne'ebé estimativa rua la hanesan maka'as. Fatin hotu-hotu kahur ahu-ruin mahar ho rubble (ahu-ruin mate ne'ebé fakar), rai-henek, ka estrutura tuan, liuliu iha Biqueli Wall, fatin ne'ebé ahu-ruin meza moris ida de'it hamriik iha kampu luan ida husi rubble Acropora mate ne'ebé alga koralina taka. La hatudu bleaching (ahu-ruin sai mutin) iha ahu-ruin tomak. Sinál lokál sira inklui kolónia mutin-kinur ka mutin iha Raiketa, Inner Reef, Pinnacle, no Compass Reef, lakon tesidu foin daudaun iha Porites boot ida nia baze iha Cabbage Patch, no fitun-tasi crown-of-thorns ida iha foto ida husi Inner Reef.

Kima (giant clam) tama metin iha estrutura ahu-ruin nian iha Inner Reef, no Compass Reef kombina jardín ahu-ruin kahur ne'ebé mahar ho área rata ida ne'ebé du'ut-tasi haleu, ho kolónia masivu ki'ik sira.