New recruitment of staghorn corals in the Gulf of Mannar – the emergence of a resilient coral reef

Abstract

Coral Reefs in Gulf of Mannar is degrading with fatser rate due to several environmental stress over the past few decades. Under this severe degredation phase, our work has observed significant coral recruitment at Hare Island and Manoli & Manoliputti Island of Gulf of Mannar. Occurrenc of new recruitment of corals increseas the live coral cover percentage upto 58.4% and 51.5% in both Islands respectively. The findings reported here that increased percentage of coral cover brings a new hope for the researcher to find out the possible driving forces to the successful post larval settlement and survival of the new recruits which results in better conservation and management plan for the coral reefs of GoM Marine National Park.

Keywords

• acropora
• coral reefs
• gom marine national park
• new recruitment