The Composition and Structure of Reef Community at Tho Chu Island (South China Sea) after Ketsana Typhoon

Abstract

Fringing the reefs of the island Tho Chu explored a quarter century later now reexamined in the Gulf of Thailand of the South China Sea. It was found that most of the reefs of the island were lost after the passage of typhoon “Ketsana” accompanied by heavy rains and strong sea waves higher than 2 meters in October 2009. Because of these natural phenomena, physical destruction of much of the coral communities occurred. Removal of terrigenous sediments from the islands in the water has led to increased sedimentation and loss of almost all the scleractinian family Acroporidae, the main building corals on the reefs of the Indo-Pacific. At present, in places where once there was full-reef community succession is restoring the reef due to the survivors of the typhoon colonies of coral genera Pocillopora and Acropora.