Growth Rate and Carbon Absorption of Coral Transplantation by the Binding and Gluing Methods at Taman Nirwana

Abstract

The gluing method has good prospect to the growth of transplanted coral if compared to the regular binding method. This study aimed to determine the differences in growth rates between transplanted corals with these two methods. Coral seedlings used in this study were about 70-129 mm in size, taken from the branching life form of Acropora genera. Coral transplantation were mediated through regular the binding method and the gluing method, before the experiment result statistically tested with Mann-Whitney test. The experiment consisted of 2 treatments and 20 replicates. The absolute growth rate, the monthly growth rate and the branching rate of transplanted coral between the two methods were not different (p>0.05). On the other hand, the survival rate and quantitative carbon absorption of corals transplanted with gluing method were observed better than those with binding method. All transplanted corals through gluing method survived, while those transplanted with binding method survived 95% (19 living corals from initial 20 observed samples). The gluing transplanted corals averagely absorbed carbon as much as 23% (11.38 mg L-1), while the other method absorbed only 18% (8.99 mg L-1). There is no significant difference of the growth rate between gluing transplanted corals and binding transplanted coral, however, the first method showed better survival rate and the carbon absorption than the later.