Coral reefs are degrading worldwide. This study explored the benthic community structure (biotic and abiotic benthic cover and coral composition) at three islands (Rasdhoo, Maayafushi and Vihamaafaru) in the central Maldivian archipelago, 2 years after the 2016 El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the associated mass-bleaching events. Hence, we assessed benthic cover on the same GPS sites and depth (10 m) of a subset of reefs that had been previously studied. The islands represent a range of management categories and oceanic influence. Average live coral cover in 2018 was lowest on Maayafushi reefs (0.65 ± 0.41%), a resort island with minimal exposure to oceanic influence. At Rasdhoo, a community island with south-eastern oceanic exposure, live coral cover was 14.70 ± 3.20% and 90% of the colonies were less than 20 cm in diameter. At Vihamaafaru, an uninhabited island with oceanic exposure from the west, reefs assessed had a live coral cover of 17.9 ± 6.80%, Acropora spp. remained the dominant taxa, and 35% of colonies were 20 cm or greater in diameter. This evident trend, in variation of live coral cover and size of the coral colonies, among the three island settings indicates the greatest potential for recovery of coral cover on reefs with more exposure to oceanic influence.

珊瑚礁正在全球范围内退化。这项研究探索了马尔代夫中部群岛三个岛屿（拉斯杜，马亚富希岛和维哈马法鲁）的底栖生物群落结构（生物和非生物底栖生物的覆盖度和珊瑚组成），这是在2016年厄尔尼诺-南方涛动（ENSO）及其相关物质之后的两年-漂白事件。因此，我们评估了以前研究过的相同GPS站点和珊瑚礁子集深度（10 m）的底栖生物覆盖率。这些岛屿代表了一系列管理类别和海洋影响力。在玛雅福士礁（Maayafushi Reef）中，2018年的平均活珊瑚覆盖率最低（0.65±0.41％），这是一个受海洋影响最小的度假岛。在东南向海洋暴露的社区岛屿拉斯杜（Rasdhoo），活珊瑚覆盖率为14.70±3.20％，其中90％的殖民地直径小于20厘米。棘孢属 仍然是主要的分类单元，35％的菌落直径为20厘米或更大。在三个岛屿环境中，活珊瑚覆盖率和珊瑚群落大小变化的明显趋势表明，在受到更大海洋影响的礁石上恢复珊瑚覆盖的最大潜力。