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Tracking Decadal Changes in Palk Bay Coral Community Structure: A Multivariate Approach

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Abstract

The study assessed a decade long changes of the coral community structure in the Palk Bay region using multivariate analysis based on observed coral life-forms and its diversity between the years, 2002 and 2018. A total of 11 study sites were selected from Rameswaram Island to Mandapam coast. Live coral cover was found to be 27% (21% non-Acropora and 6% Acropora corals) during the study period 2002–2005. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that there was a significant variability (PC1: 39.5% variance) in coral cover between the study site, Bison House and the rest of the study sites. In the study of 2014–2018, live coral cover observed was 17% and this included 11% non-Acropora and 6% Acropora corals. PCA showed that the contribution of live coral cover gradually reduced towards the northern part of Rameswaram Island. Metric multi-dimensional Scaling (MDS) showed that there were four clusters formed between the sites with 80% similarity as observed based on the life-form categories. There were three major clusters with 70% similarity observed based on coral diversity. The highest diversity index (Shannon-wiener) was observed at Olaikudah and Villunditheertham as 1.906 and 1.864 respectively. As of 2014–2018, the live coral status showed 37% less than that found during 2002–2005 study period. Variation of reef flat composition was studied using Depth-Invariant Index for the study period 2002–2005. This study has helped to understand the longitudinal gradient of incidence, temporal variations, and distribution pattern of coral reef community categories in the Palk Bay region.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Earth System Science Organization, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India; Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India; Indian Council for Agricultural Research, Government of India for the financial support to research in various tenure periods. Thanks are due to the facility provided for the survey and analysis to the Directors, Department of Marine and Coastal Studies, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai; Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata; Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi. We also acknowledge the reviewer’s critical comments that improved the manuscript substantially.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Survey of India (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India), FPS Building, Indian Museum Complex, Kolkata, 700016, India

    Nithyanandam Marimuthu

  2. Department of Marine and Coastal Studies, School of Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 625021, India

    Nithyanandam Marimuthu, James Jerald Wilson & Arumugam Kuppuswamy Kumaraguru

  3. Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Marine Fisheries Post 623520, Mandapam Camp, Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, India

    Arumugam Kuppuswamy Kumaraguru

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  1. Nithyanandam Marimuthu
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  2. James Jerald Wilson
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  3. Arumugam Kuppuswamy Kumaraguru
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the surveys: AKK; Performed the surveys and data retrieval: NM and JJW. Statistical and Remote Sensing analysis: NM; Wrote the manuscript: NM, JJW and AKK.

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Correspondence to Nithyanandam Marimuthu.

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Marimuthu, N., Wilson, J.J. & Kumaraguru, A.K. Tracking Decadal Changes in Palk Bay Coral Community Structure: A Multivariate Approach. J Coast Conserv 24, 32 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-020-00752-w

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