Biak and Wakatobi reefs are the two hottest hotspots of coral reef fish diversity and abundance in the Indonesian Archipelago

Abstract

The Indonesian Archipelago has a very complex geological history, along with equatorial warm sea temperature, resulting in diverse types of coral reefs and high diversity of coral reef fish. Many livelihoods of the coastal community are dependent on coral reef fisheries. The present study aimed to determine which region and location in the Indonesian Archipelago has the most diverse and abundant coral reef fish. The archipelago was divided into four regions: the Indian Ocean, Sunda Shelf, Wallacea, and the Pacific Ocean. Data were obtained from a national coral reef monitoring program of the Indonesian Research Center for Oceanography (RCO)-the National Board for Research and Innovation (BRIN). The reef fish data were collected using the underwater visual census method, from 321 belt transects on 24 locations (districts) across the archipelago. The results show that coral reef fish diversity of the Pacific region was the highest across the archipelago for all three trophic levels, i.e., corallivore, herbivore, and carnivore fish. The Pacific Ocean region also had the highest fish abundance for the three trophic levels. Comparison among locations revealed that the best ten locations in reef fish diversity and abundance were Sabang,

Other faunas, coral rubbles, and soft coral covers are important predictors of coral reef fish diversity, abundance, and biomass

“…The Indonesian Through Flow, from the Pacific to the Indian Oceans, may continually bring marine larvae through Makassar and Lombok Straits, Flores Sea, Maluku (Molucca) Sea, Halmahera Sea, and the Banda Sea, in the central and eastern Indonesian Archipelago (Thompson et al, 2018). Bachtiar et al (2022) reported that herbivore fish predominant did not happen in all of the Indonesian Archipelago. Biak was the most predominant in herbivore fish, while Wakatobi was prevalent in carnivore fish.…”

Coral health assessment of two marine national parks (takabonerate and wakatobi) in southern sulawesi

“…Both MPAs were important to the surrounding fisheries industry, in which MPA plays an important role in the spillover process (emigration of adult, larva and juvenile from MPA) [18]. As mentioned by [19], Wakatobi is one of the hot spots of reef fish in Indonesia. Takabonerate has a limited diversity of coastal ecosystems (mostly consisting of reefs and seagrass), while Wakatobi offers a diverse seascape.…”