Biodiversity of coral reefs ecosystem in Sabu Raijua Waters

Abstract

The waters of Sabu Raijua are included in World’s Coral Triangle Region, which has high-potential Coral Reefs Ecosystems that have not been widely revealed. The remote location and erratic wave weather conditions give challenges in surveying biodiversity coral reef ecosystems. The observation of the Coral Reef ecosystem has been carried out at 12 stations in Sabu Raijua using underwater photo transect to determine the coral cover percentage, line transect for benthos noncoral, belt transect for community structure of coral reefs, and visual census method for measuring reef fish community. The result of coral reef condition is categorized as moderate, where the average live hard coral cover percentage is 22%, dominated by coral massive and submassive. Hard coral that found as many as 47 genera dominated by Porites, Galaxea, and Favites. There are 111 species of coral reef fishes have been identified. Benthos noncoral found as many as 109 species.