Identification of the Corals fauna in the Larak Island

Abstract

Corals reef is the richest and biologically diverse ecosystems. Larak island which is located in the Persian Gulf have coral reef ecosystem. Sampling has been carried out by SCUBA diving method and estimated fringing reef grew around the north part of this Island during the years of 2000-2001. The distribution of reef was determined through field observation and about 2-6 meters depth below the mean low tide. Our results showed identified corals belonging to seven families, eight genera and 12 species. Seven families belonging to Scleractinia order and one species belonging to Alcyonacea order . In Scleractini six families were: Acroporidae, Pocilloporidae, Agriicidae, Siderasteridae, Poritidae, Faviidae and seven genera which had identified were Acropora , Porites , Platygyra , Psammocora ,Pavana, Favia and Stylophora . The most important families in order to the number of genera and species were Acroporidae, Faviidae and Poritidae

Keywords

• Identification
• Persian Gulf
• Hard Corals
• Larak Island