Relationship between coral reef ecosystem and coral fish communities in Unggeh Island Central Tapanuli Regency

Abstract

Coral reef ecosystems in Unggeh Island waters have recently declined in quality due to natural factors and human activities. The declining quality can affect the biota of the coral reef ecosystem, such as coral reef fish. Coral reef fish belong to the groups of fish whose lives are associated with the coral reef ecosystem environment. This study aims to determine the abundance and diversity of coral reef fish and the relationship between abundance of coral reef fish and the percentage of coral cover in Unggeh Island Waters, Badiri District, Central Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra. This research was conducted in December 2017 and April 2018. The method used to observe the coral was Underwater Photo Transect (UPT) method. And the method used to observe the coral reef fish was Underwater Visual Census (UVC) method. To determine the relationship between coral cover and coral reef fish was by using a simple linear regression equation. The results showed that the relationship of coral cover with coral reef fish was in the correlation value (R) of 0.418.