Monitoring of coral cover (Cnidaria: scleractinia) in Cabo Branco reef environment (João Pessoa) during the process of anthropogenic intervention.

Abstract:

Scleractine corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Scleractinia) are invertebrate organisms and major builders of coral reefs and reef environments, marine ecosystems of important ecological relevance. In view of the threats and environmental damage suffered by these ecosystems, monitoring the health of reef environments is a global goal of conservation and preservation. The objective of this work was to describe the quali quantitatively the diversity of stony corals and monitor the health status of the coverage coralline of the reef environment of Cabo Branco beach João Pessoa – PB, during the anthropogenic interventions in the works to contain the Cabo Branco barrier. The collections of abiotic data (salinity, precipitation, dissolved oxygen, surface temperature of the seawater and atmospheric temperature) and biotics occurred in the period between October 2020 to August 2021, following adaptations of the Agrra protocols version 5.5, and using the Coral Health Chart for measuring the level of whitening of colonies. The data were worked according to descriptive statistics in the Excel® program. Among the main results, there was an investigation that covered 800m2 of the studied reef environment. accounted for 183 colonies of Siderastrea stellata, of which 36 were recruits (all healthy) and 147 adults. In this last category, 87.76% were considered healthy, 10.8% showed a degree of whitening and 1.36% were dead (old events). The data found in this study demonstrate that the Cabo Branco reef environment is susceptible to environmental variations and anthropogenic interactions.