Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
Sci Rep. 2022 Aug 17;12(1):13979. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-17908-3.
Demographic analyses offer insight into the state of a population. Here, we surveyed different reef flat zones (exposed, midreef and sheltered) of six reefs over a cross-shelf gradient to characterize the population structure of Stylophora pistillata, a coral species which dominates reef flats in the central Red Sea. Phototransects were conducted at each reef flat zone, and the density of S. pistillata, the planar area of each colony, and the occurrence of partial mortality were calculated using the program ImageJ. Each colony was also assigned a color morph (yellow, purple or mixed colors). Density and mean size were extremely variable, both among reef flat zones and reefs, but overall, both metrics were lower on the midshelf reefs. The yellow color morph accounted for nearly 90% of colonies surveyed and dominated most reef flats assessed, with the exception of one site where 81% of colonies were purple morphs. There were no spatial trends in the percentage of colonies suffering partial mortality, but overall there is a positive correlation with size class and proportion of colonies with partial mortality. Despite few trends emerging from assessing individual parameters, a PERMANOVA analysis revealed differences among reef flat zones in most of the reefs, highlighting the importance of multivariate analysis. The data presented here serve as a baseline for monitoring and may identify possible future demographic changes to this important coral species in a region increasingly affected by bleaching events.
人口统计学分析可以深入了解人口状况。在这里，我们调查了六个珊瑚礁的不同礁坪区（暴露区、中礁区和遮蔽区），以描述中央红海礁坪上占主导地位的石珊瑚属（Stylophora pistillata）的种群结构。在每个礁坪区进行了光切分，并使用 ImageJ 程序计算了 S. pistillata 的密度、每个群体的平面面积和部分死亡的发生情况。每个群体还被分配了一种颜色形态（黄色、紫色或混合颜色）。密度和平均大小在礁坪区和珊瑚礁之间都非常多变，但总体而言，中礁区的这两个指标都较低。黄色形态的群体占调查群体的近 90%，并主导了大多数评估的礁坪，除了一个地点，那里 81%的群体是紫色形态。部分死亡的群体比例没有空间趋势，但总体上与大小类和部分死亡的群体比例呈正相关。尽管从评估单个参数中没有出现多少趋势，但 PERMANOVA 分析显示，大多数珊瑚礁的礁坪区之间存在差异，这突出了多变量分析的重要性。这里呈现的数据可作为监测的基线，并可能识别出该重要珊瑚物种在受白化事件影响日益严重的地区未来可能出现的人口变化。
