Globally, coral reefs are in severe decline (Jackson et al., 2001) and face potential
extinction of 1/3 of reef species by 2050 (Veron, 2011). This decline is the result of the
inability of coral communities to recover after disturbance events, often resulting in a
shift from coral- to macro-algal dominated regimes. Reef resources managers are in need
of tools to assess the condition of these ecosystems prior to, during, and post disturbance,
especially in regions of the world where coral cover and diversity are high, yet
management resources are scarce. Foraminifera have been widely utilized as
bioindicators in both modern and paleoenvironments for more than a century due to their
abundance, diverse functional morphology, rapid generation time, global distribution, and
rich geologic record (Sen Gupta, 1999; Hallock et al., 2003). The FoRAM Index (FI) was
developed as a single metric indicator to assess whether water quality supports coral
recruitment and reproduction in Caribbean and Western Atlantic coral reefs (Hallock et
al., 2003), yet the FI has not been widely applied to Indo-Pacific coral reefs. This study reports benthic foraminiferal assemblages from Pulau Karangmadjat,
Mentawai Islands, Indonesia, and is the first to provide in situ foraminiferal assemblages
for the Mentawai region. Results revealed overall low Shannon’s H’ and Fisher’s alpha,
and low Buzas and Gibson’s evenness values across 13 sample sites selected from a
variety of reef habitat zones. Values for the FI were also calculated and were extremely
high across all sites due to the dominance of symbiont-bearing calcarinid taxa, suggesting
favorable water quality conditions. Q-mode hierarchical cluster analysis revealed 4
clusters, only one of which corresponded in its entirety to a well defined benthic habitat
zone. Overall, a high degree of similarity between foraminiferal assemblages was present
for most sites sampled due to the dominance of calcarinids, suggesting prevalence of a
macro-algal substrate, and potentially a shift from a coral- to macro-algal dominated
regime for this study area. Utilization of indices like the FI, when used in conjunction
with non-FI analysis of foraminiferal assemblages, may aid managers in deducing drivers
of regime shifts on Indonesian coral reefs, which may ultimately facilitate solutions for
reef conservation and recovery following natural and anthropogenic disturbance. Further
testing of the applicability of the FI on Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific reefs is needed to
in order to test this hypothesis. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_33917 |
| Contributors | Garcia, Christine N. (author), Oleinik, Anton E. (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 63 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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