Fringing Reefs of Reunion Island and Eutrophication Effects - Part 3: Long-Term Monitoring of Living Corals

Abstract

Spatio-temporal variations of living coral coverage, species richness and diversity were studied on two fringing reef sites at Saint-Gilles La Saline on Reunion Island from 1987 to 2009. The Site-Toboggan (T) was characterized by oligotrophy, Acropora corals, abundant sea urchins and few primary producers. The Site-Planch’Alizés (P), was characterized by heterotrophy, massive corals, abundant primary producers and rare sea urchins. From the shore to the outer reef slope, both reef flats comprise the back reef at around 1.5m deep (‘B’), coral zone ‘L’ with large shore-normal strips of coral 0.8m deep, coral zone ‘N’ with narrow shore-normal strips of corals at around 0.4m deep, and an outer reef flat (