The Structure of Coral Communities at Hurghada in the Northern Red Sea

Abstract

Abstract. The community structure of hard and soft corals, with an emphasis on hard corals, was determined by means of line‐transects on 9 on‐and off‐shore reefs of different type and different wave exposure in the Northern Red Sea near Hurghada in Egypt. Coral communities were found to differentiate along a horizontal wind‐ and wave‐exposure gradient. Exposed communities were dominated by Acropora species, sheltered communities by Porites species, and semi‐exposed communities by Millepora species. Also, vertical within‐reef zonations following a depth gradient were observed; these were unique for each exposure‐determined community type. Average transect diversity was highest on semi‐exposed reefs, lowest on sheltered reefs. Reef slopes were more diverse than other reef zones. The observed community structure was compared with data from the literature, and widely distributed, roughly comparable hard and soft coral communities were identified.