the persian gulf is northern part of the ropme sea area (rsa), and is semi-enclosed shallow sea which located in subtropical climate. measuring is 1000km in length, varying in width 60-340km, and average depth is about 35m and maximum depth is 105m. this research was carried out during 2005-2010 for reviewing the corals status and determination of coral reef habitats distribution in the persian...

The Persian Gulf is northern part of the ROPME Sea Area (RSA), and is semi-enclosed shallow sea which located in subtropical climate. Measuring is 1000km in length, varying in width 60-340km, and average depth is about 35m and maximum depth is 105m. This research was carried out during 2005-2010 for reviewing the corals status and determination of coral reef habitats distribution in the Persian...

In the Persian Gulf, Acropora- dominated coral reefs have been damaged by global and local disturbances. Inversion of coral colonies mostly occur due to anchoring and fishing in many coral reefs, particularly those established nearby human societies, like the coral reef of Hengam Island, in the Persian Gulf. The short term growth rates (weight increment) of inversely and normally transplanted c...

Coral reefs and seagrass beds are often located adjacent to one another, but little is known about the degree to which their fish communities are interlinked. To determine whether coral reef fishes on the coral reef are interlinked with or segregated from fishes on adjacent seagrass beds, a 60 m coral reef–seagrass gradient was studied on the island of Zanzibar in the western Indian Ocean. Usin...

As with all coral reef systems, the ecology of Ningaloo Reef is closely linked to water circulation which transport and disperse key material such as nutrients and larvae. Circulation on coral reefs may be driven by a number of forcing mechanisms including waves, tides, wind, and buoyancy effects. Surface waves interacting with reefs have long been known to dominate the currents on many coral r...

Efficient survey methodologies that provide comprehensive assessment of reef condition are fundamental to coral reef monitoring. Current state-of-the-art techniques in coral reef assessment rely on highly trained scientific divers to measure indices of reef health (e.g., substrate cover, species richness, coral size, coral mortality). First-generation video mosaics were an innovative survey tec...

One of the most diverse vertebrate communities is found on tropical coral reefs. Coral-reef fishes are not only remarkable in color and shape, but also in several aspects of physiological performance. Early in life, at the end of the pelagic larval stage, coral-reef fishes are the fastest swimmers of all fishes in relation to body size, and show the highest specific rates of maximum oxygen upta...

Long-term changes in structure of fish communities on coral reefs infested by the coralfeeding starfish Acanthasterplanci were determined using 20 mZ visual transects. We censused a living coral reef consisting mainly of staghorn Acropora spp. at Saluyama Bay and a dead coral reef with low structural complexlty of coral branches (about 2 yr after A. planci infestation) at Amitori Bay, Iriomote ...

Overexploitation is one of the principal threats to coral reef diversity, structure, function, and resilience [1, 2]. Although it is generally held that coral reef fisheries are unsustainable [3-5], little is known of the overall scale of exploitation or which reefs are overfished [6]. Here, on the basis of ecological footprints and a review of exploitation status [7, 8], we report widespread u...

The structure of coral reef habitat has a pronounced influence on the diversity, composition and abundance of reef-associated fishes. However, the particular features of the habitat that are most critical are not always known. Coral habitats can vary in many characteristics, notably live coral cover, topographic complexity and coral diversity, but the relative effects of these habitat character...