University of California Los Angeles, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, CA, USA.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2010 Dec;60(12):2251-6. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.08.011. Epub 2010 Sep 15.
Although coral reefs worldwide are subject to increasing global threats, humans also impact coral reefs directly through localized activities such as snorkeling, kayaking and fishing. We investigated five sites on the northern shore of Moorea, French Polynesia, and quantified the number of visitors on the beach and in shallow water. In field surveys, we measured total coral cover and colony sizes of two common genera, Porites and Acropora, a massive and branching morphology, respectively. One site, which hosted over an order of magnitude more people than the other four, had significantly less total coral cover and supported very little branching Acropora. In addition, size frequency distributions of both the branching and massive genera were skewed toward smaller colony sizes at the high use site. Our results demonstrated that the use of tropical beaches may result in less coral cover, with branching colonies rare and small.
尽管全球范围内的珊瑚礁正受到日益增多的全球性威胁，但人类也通过在当地开展的各种活动，如浮潜、皮划艇和钓鱼等，直接影响着珊瑚礁。我们调查了法属波利尼西亚莫雷阿岛北岸的五个地点，并对海滩和浅水区的游客数量进行了量化。在实地调查中，我们测量了两种常见属的总珊瑚覆盖率和珊瑚虫群大小，它们分别是块状的 Porites 和分枝状的 Acropora。其中一个地点的游客数量比其他四个地点的总和还要多出一个数量级，其总珊瑚覆盖率明显较低，且很少有分枝状的 Acropora。此外，这两个属的大小频率分布在高使用率地点都向较小的珊瑚虫群大小倾斜。我们的研究结果表明，热带海滩的使用可能会导致珊瑚覆盖率降低，分枝状珊瑚虫群较为罕见且体型较小。
