The effect of coral transplantation on the community structure of reef fish on Harapan Island, Seribu Archipelago, Jakarta

Abstract

Coral reef degradation in Indonesia is increasingly alarming. For this reason, efforts are needed to rehabilitate coral reef ecosystems. In this study, we explained the effect of coral transplantation on the structure of coral fish communities in the waters of Harapan Island, precisely on Rosa and Pamegaran Island, Seribu Archipelago National Park. The study of the reef fish community structure was carried out for 8 weeks from February 2019 to April 2019. This study was conducted by scuba diving to dive directly into the coral transplant sites. During the study period, a total of 35 species (14 families) were observed. There is an increase in fish abundance per 50m² which is significant over time for 8 weeks of observation (α 0.05). Significant differences in abundance of reef fish also occurred between the two islands (α 0.05), indicating that differences in the depth of the location of coral transplants can also affect the abundance of reef fish. It can be concluded that coral transplantation efforts succeeded in increasing the abundance of individual reef fish on both coral transplantation islands.