CORAL BIODIVERSITY IN PULAU MIANG, EAST KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA

Abstract

This study aims to discover the potential of resources and diversity of hard corals of Pulau Miang island (118°0'20"E, 0°44’0"N) located in Sangkulirang District, East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan. This island is also called Pulau Miang Besar by locals to distinguish it from an uninhabited island to the northeast from this island. The coral reef in Pulau Miang has formed a fringing natural barrier protecting the island from erosion. Pulau Miang is part of the world’s coral triangle region, with very high coral diversity. Since this island is a remote area, very little literature related to its coral biodiversity, and this study became the first article that revealed this coral reef ecosystem. Quadrat transects were used to calculate the percentage of coral life covering this island. Transects lay down 100 times at two different depths and were photographed to measure the coral area within transects. An ImageJ software was used to count and mark coral colonies. The result showed that the average percentage of coral cover area in Pulau Miang was 21.39%, categorized as poor condition, while the coral biodiversity index was 1.98 or in an intermediate state. Two genera dominated coral taxa – Acropora and Porites. Based on the number of colonies and coral cover area, Acropora and Porites are the dominant coral genera in Pulau Miang among coral taxa.