Short Communication: Growth rate of Acropora muricata coral fragments transplanted on dome-shaped concrete artificial reef with different composition

Abstract

Abstract. Artificial reefs are artificial habitats laid in waters by mimicking some of the characteristics of natural reefs; and could be made of different materials, one of which is concrete. Seashell waste and stone ash could be added as an alternative material to the concrete for artificial reefs. The purpose of this research is to access the growth rate of Acropora muricata coral fragments transplanted on the hollow dome-shaped concrete with three different compositions: C1), conventional concrete, composed by a mixture of Portland cement, sand, and gravel (composition was 1:3:2); C2), a mixture of Portland cement, sand and crushed bivalve's shells (composition was 1:3:2); and C3), a mixture of Portland cement, stone waste (stone dust), sand and crushed bivalve's shells (composition was 1:3:3:2). Observation of coral fragment growth was conducted underwater by Scuba diving for 6 months with observed parameters were fragment length, colony diameter and number of branching. The highest rate of fragment lengthening of A. muricata coral fragment was at C2 (1.019±0.081 cm/month) and C1 (1.014±0.076 cm/ month). The highest colony diameter increment was also in C2 (1.903±0.212 cm/month) and C1 (1.856±0.219 cm/month); while largest number of branches was also in C2 (13.31 or 2.21 branch/month) and C1 (12.56 or 2.09 branch/month), respectively. Based on one-way ANOVA and Tukey's HSD test (p = 0.05), there is no significant difference in fragment lengthening and colony diameter in C1 and C2 model, yet differed significantly with C3 model.

Coral transplantation on a multilevel substrate of Artificial Patch Reefs: effect of fixing methods on the growth rate of two Acropora species

“…Some previous studies of coral transplantation revealed that the growth rate of Acropora was higher than that of other hermatypic corals. Bongiorni et al (2011) reported that Acropora possesses relative growth ranged 66.9 to 83.3%, while growth rate of Acropora which transplanted on the artificial reef dome-shaped was 1.07 cm/month (Muzaki et al 2019), Acropora fragments fixed to the dead coral was 7.8 cm/year (Nithyanandan et al 2018). This result showed that the growth rate of both Acropora which transplanted on multilevel substrate possesses a high growth rate.…”

Scleractinian recruits on natural and artificial substrates in temporary sediment-challenged coastal water of Bangkalan, Madura Island, Indonesia

“…The HSAR can also generate beneficial vortices and turbulence, which is an attractive characteristic for habitat structures since fish abundance is influenced by current vortices [15]. Application of modified HSAR as platform for coral transplantation also reported by [4,6]. Dimension of the AR was 50x50 cm (diameter x height) and composed by a mixture of Portland cement, sand as fine aggregate and gravel as coarse aggregate (composition was 1:3:2).…”

“…Previous study by [4] mentioned that live coral cover in the area is less than 15% in 2017 and mostly dominated by massive and encrusting lifeforms. Based on these conditions, it is clearly necessary to improve the condition of coral reefs in the area, by means of application of artificial reef [5] and/or coral transplantation [4,6]. In this study, we focused on the artificial reef which usually used to improve habitat quality as well as enhance marine resources, e.g.…”

Coral recruits on concrete hemispherical artificial reef (HSAR) with different composition in Pasir Putih, Situbondo, Indonesia

“…As the results, increased shellfish production will have impact on increasing of the shell waste which reaches 90% from the total wet weight of the shellfish [2] and therefore will require serious handling. Generally, shell wastes will be thrown away or maybe 2 used as land filling material [2], or made into handicrafts, abrasive components in toothpaste, animal feed mixtures, absorbents for water management and other minor utilization [3]. In addition, shell waste also contains calcium carbonate, make it potentially utilized as a secondary base material for applications in a circular economy perspective, for example as a substitute material in cement mixtures [2,4].…”