Rapid decline of a relatively high latitude coral assemblage at Weizhou Island, northern South China Sea

Analysis on the Live Coral Cover around Weizhou Island Using MODIS Data

“…In addition, as Weizhou Island is located in a relatively high-latitude area and is heavily influenced by anthropogenic activity, coral reefs have long been the focus of studies that analyze the response of coral reefs to global warming and human disturbance [16,18]. According to Yu et al [14], for Weizhou Island, Porites lutea was the most dominant coral species, Favites halicora and Leptastrea purpurea were the co-dominant species; Faviidae was the most dominant family followed by Poritidae (According to Budd et al [19], Faviidae is now restricted to the Atlantic, most Indo-Pacific species previously assigned to this family are now placed in the Merulinidae. However, Faviidae has been used in documents on coral reefs in SCS, e.g., Huang et al [20], Zhao et al [21,22], and Yu et al [14], etc.…”

“…According to Yu et al [14], for Weizhou Island, Porites lutea was the most dominant coral species, Favites halicora and Leptastrea purpurea were the co-dominant species; Faviidae was the most dominant family followed by Poritidae (According to Budd et al [19], Faviidae is now restricted to the Atlantic, most Indo-Pacific species previously assigned to this family are now placed in the Merulinidae. However, Faviidae has been used in documents on coral reefs in SCS, e.g., Huang et al [20], Zhao et al [21,22], and Yu et al [14], etc. Hence, this paper continues to use the Faviidae family to show the dominant family of corals around Weizhou Island).…”

“…Hence, this paper continues to use the Faviidae family to show the dominant family of corals around Weizhou Island). Weizhou Island was usually selected as the study area for our experiments on remote sensing of coral reefs, i.e., the bathymetry of the coral reefs [23] and the retrieval of LCCs [14,24]. Similarly, Weizhou Island was chosen as the study area for this study.…”

“…Many authors [11,12,13,14] have shown that long-term human activities, such as marine engineering, sewage discharge, tourism, etc., can result in degradation of the corals, and Zhao et al [15] noted that human activities rather than global warming were the primary causes for the degradation of the corals in Luhuitou fringing reef (Hainan). On the other hand, Chl-a concentration usually increases with nutrient concentration [16], while increases in nutrient concentration may be caused by human activities.…”

Poritiphilus flavus gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of the family Flavobacteriaceae isolated from coral Porites lutea

“…Porites has become a dominant coral species in the process of global coral reef degradation [1, 2], and bacteria may play an important role in the adaption of Porites to the changed environment [3]. Although coral bacterial diversity has been well studied using high-throughput sequencing techniques [4], the exact role of individual bacteria in coral was still unclear due to its uncultured state.…”