The natural recruitment and recovery process of corals at Green Island

Abstract

The hard coral community at Green Island Reef is in the early stages of recovery following major damage caused from predation by Acanthaster between 1979 and 1981. Five years after the outbreak, in 1985, the coral community was dominated by juvenile corals mainly of the family Acroporidae. Of 20 sites surveyed by line transect, only 5 had a hard coral cover greater than 10%. Some Pocillopora damicornis was apparently undamaged by A. planci, and some staghorn Acropora thickets were regenerating from small parts of colonies which escaped predation. There was no significant change in hard coral cover at any of 12 sites resurveyed one year later in 1986. The absence of an increase in hard coral cover over the one year period is probably partly due to the early successional stage of the coral community, but it might also be partly attributable to the effects of Cyclone Winifred which passed through the area in February 1986.