Mini‐symposium 22: Management and Conservation of Coral Reef EcosystemspostprintThe 2nd Asia Pacific Coral Reef Symposium (APCRS 2010), Phuket, Thailand, 20-24 June 2010

Alfian, K

Dumont, C

HKU Scholars Hub

Title Corals at risk: effectiveness of the removal of a keystone coral-predator Acanthaster planci in a marine park of MalaysiaAuthor(s) Dumont, C; Alfian, KCitation The 2nd Asia Pacific Coral Reef Symposium (APCRS 2010),Phuket, Thailand, 20-24 June 2010.Issued Date 2010URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/127801Rights Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong LicenseCORALS AT RISK: EFFECTIVENESS OF THE REMOVAL OF A KEYSTONE CORAL-PREDATOR ACANTHASTER PLANCI, IN A MARINE PARK OF MALAYSIA Clement DUMONT, Ph.DResearch Assistant ProfessorThe Swire Institute of Marine Science & Division of Ecology & BiodiversitySchool of Biological SciencesThe University of Hong Kong, Hong KongAssessing and managing threats to the coral reef health isessential to devise appropriate conservation strategies.Destructive population explosions of the coral-eating predatorcrown-of-thorns (COT) sea star are responsible to large-scaledisturbance of coral reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific.Invertebrate coral-eating predators are, however, one of the fewthreats that could potentially be directly managed throughtargeted predator removal. Volunteers remove hundreds of seastars every year in Malaysia in an attempt to control outbreaksin protected areas. The present study describes the status of theCOT populations in the Pulau Tioman Marine Park and examinesthe impact of the manual removal of the sea stars on coral reefs.We therefore compared COT densities and coral communities atsites where COT have been removed every year since 1998 withsites where no sea stars removals were conducted. Our surveysrevealed that COT densities are well above the critical densitythreshold suggesting active outbreaks at most sites, regardlessof the removal effort. Further, sea urchins occurred at muchhigher densities at removal sites, although not correlated withCOT densities. Field and lab experiments were conducted inHong Kong to further examine the role of sea urchins on thebioerosion of corals. Our results suggest that unthinking andunfocussed programs to control coral predators’ impact aregenerally unsuccessful and may even prolong the damage.Tarikh21 Oktober 2010Masa :9.00  pagi -11.00 pagiTempat:Bilik Mesyuarat Fakulti, FST*Terbuka kepada semuapensyarah dan pelajarSebarang pertanyaan boleh menghubungi : En. Kee Alfian : 03-8921 5872Cik Shida (EKOMAR) : 03-8921 4618 www.ekomar@ukm.my

Corals at risk: effectiveness of the removal of a keystone coral-predator Acanthaster planci in a marine park of Malaysia

http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/127801/1/Abstract.pdf

Corals at risk: effectiveness of the removal of a keystone coral-predator Acanthaster planci in a marine park of Malaysia

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