Home Institution
Brown University
Publication Date
Fall 2018
Abstract
While the existence of vertical zonation on coral reefs is well-known, the driving mechanisms and the influence each has is not clear. This study seeks to investigate the influence of reef health on vertical zonation. Reef health is used as a potential factor since it is essentially a broad description of reef diversity. Therefore, a healthy reef which is very diverse is likely to have more and different interspecies interactions than an unhealthy one. This project investigates whether these altered interactions results in different depth distributions of various coral types, categorized broadly by colony shape. Reef health did not seem to significantly affect depth distribution of coral types, although it did influence the species richness of branching and small dome-shaped corals in upper reef sections.
Disciplines
African Studies | Biodiversity | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Environmental Monitoring | Oceanography
Recommended Citation
Gates, Daniel, "Correlations Between Reef Health and Vertical Zonation on Ushongo Village Reef and Fungu Zinga Reef" (2018). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 2916.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/2916
Included in
African Studies Commons, Biodiversity Commons, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons, Environmental Monitoring Commons, Oceanography Commons
Program Name
Tanzania: Wildlife Conservation and Political Ecology