Abstract
Compared to the catastrophic impacts of various environmental disturbances and the subsequent recovery of scleractinian coral communities from these events, little is known about the early successional dynamics of coral communities following major volcanic eruptions. The 1988 volcanic eruption of Gunung Api, Banda Islands, Indonesia, provided a unique opportunity to study the rate at which a reef-building coral community develops on an andesitic lava flow. Coral colonization was studied at three locations varying in substrate characteristics. Five years after the eruption, the sheltered lava flow supported a diverse coral community (124 species) with high coral cover\(\bar x = 61.6\% \pm 7.5\). Tabulate acroporids were a dominant component of the lava flow coral community, with some colonies measuring over 90 cm in diameter. Higher average coral diversity, coral abundance and cover were recorded on the andesitic lava flow than on an adjacent carbonate reef not covered by the lava, and on a substrate of unstable pyroclastic deposits located on the southwestern coast of the volcano. In some areas of high coral diversity and environmental stability, andesitic lava flows may create local hot-spots of coral diversity by providing a structurally complex, predator-free and stable substrate for the recruitment of coral species from the adjacent and regional species pools.
Article PDF
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Belda CA, Cuff C, Yellowlees D (1993) Modification of shell formation in the giant clamTridacna gigas at elevated nutrient levels in sea water. Mar Biol 117:251–257
Best BM, Hoeksema BW, Moka W, Moll H, Suharsono, Sutarna IN (1989) Recent scleractinian coral species collected during the Snellius-II Expedition in eastern Indonesia. Neth J Sea Res 23:107–115
Box GEP, Hunter WG, Hunter JC (1978) Statistics for experimenters: an introduction to design, data analysis and model building. John Wiley and Sons, New York, USA
Brower JE, Zar JH (1977) Field andlaboratory methods for general ecology. Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers, Dubuque, Iowa, USA
Casadevall TJ, Pardyanto L, Abas, Tulus (1989) The 1988 eruption of Banda Api volcano, Maluku, Indonesia. Geol Indon 12(1):603–635
Colgan M (1987) Coral reef recovery on Guam (Micronesia) after catastrophic predation byAcanthaster planci. Ecology 68:1592–1605
Connell JH (1978) Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs. Science 199:1302–1309
Dana JD (1872) Corals and coral islands. Dodd, Mead and Company, New York (2nd edn 1874; 3rd edn 1890)
Darwin CR (1842) The structure and distribution of coral reefs. Smith, Elder and Company, London (Reprinted 1962, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) USA
Davis WM (1928) The coral reef problem. Am Geogr Soc Spec Publ 9:1–596
Dollar SJ, Tribble GW (1993) Recurrent storm disturbance and recovery: a long-term study of coral communities in Hawaii. Coral Reefs 12:223–233
Done TJ (1985) Effects of twoAcanthaster outbreaks on coral community structure: The meaning of devastation. Proc 5th Int Coral Reef Symp 5:315–320
Done TJ, Osborne K, Navin KF (1988) Recovery of corals post-Acanthaster: progress and prospects. Proc 6th Int Coral Reef Symp 2:137–142
Done TJ, Dayton PK, Dayton AE, Steger R (1991) Regional and local variability in recovery of shallow coral communities: Moorea, French Polynesia and central Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs 9:183–192
Faure G (1989) Degradation of coral reefs at Moorea Island (French Polynesia) byAcanthaster planci. J Coast Res 5:295–306
Garcia MO, Rhodes JM, Wolfe EW, Ulrich GE, Ho, RA (1992) Petrology of lavas from episodes 2–47 of the Puu Oo eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii: evaluation of magmatic processes. Bull Volcanol 55:1–16
Glynn PW (1984) Widespread coral mortality and the 1982/83 El Niño warming event. Environ Conserv 11:133–146
Glynn PW (1990) (ed) Global ecological consequences of the 1982–83 El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Elsevier Oceanography Series, 52, Elsevier, Amsterdam
Glynn PW, Colgan MW (1992) Sporadic disturbances in fluctuating coral reef environments: El Niño and coral reef development in the eastern Pacific. Am Zool 32:707–718
Grigg RW (1983) Community structure, succession and development of coral reefs in Hawaii. Mar Ecol Progr Ser 11:1–14
Grigg RW, Maragos JE (1974) Recolonization of hermatypic corals on submerged lava flows in Hawaii. Ecology 55:387–395
Huston MA (1985) Patterns of coral species diversity on coral reefs. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 16:149–177
Hutchison CH (1989) Geological evolution of South-East Asia. Oxford Science Publications, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK
Karlson RH, Hurd LE (1993) Disturbance, coral reef communities, and changing ecological paradigms. Coral Reefs 12:117–125
Kuenen PH (1935) Contribution to the geology of the East Indies from the Snellius Expedition. Part I. Volcanoes. Leid Geol Meded 7:273–331
Kusumadinata K (1979) Data Dasar Gunungapi Indonesia. Volcanological Survey of Indonesia, Bandung: 1–820
Lessios HA, Robertson DR, Cubit JD (1984) Spread ofDiadema mass mortality through the Caribbean. Science 226:335–337
Loya Y (1972) Community structure and species diversity of hermatypic corals at Eilat, Red Sea. Mar Biol 13:100–123
Loya Y (1976) Recolonization of Red Sea corals affected by natural catastrophes and manmade perturbations. Ecology 57:278–289
Loya Y (1978) Plotless and transect methods. In: Stoddart DR, Johannes RE (eds) Coral reefs: research methods. UNESCO, Paris, pp 278–289
Mah AJ, Stearn CW (1986) The effect of Hurricane Allen on Bellairs fringing reef, Barbados. Coral Reefs 4:169–176
Moll H (1983) Zonation and diversity of Scleractinia on reefs off S. W. Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ph.D. Thesis Leiden, Offsetdrukkerij Kanters B. V., Albalaaerdam Netherlands
Moyer JT, Emerson WK, Ross M (1982) Massive destruction of scleractinian corals by the muricid gastropod,Drupella, in Japan and the Philippines. Nautilus 96:69–82
Pardyanto L, Suratman, Tulus (1991) Banda Api. Bulletin of volcanic eruptions 28:30–31
Pearson RG (1981) Recovery and recolonization of coral reefs. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 4:105–122
Pielou EC (1966) Shannon's formula as a measure of specific diversity: its use and misuse. Am Nat 100:463–465
Porter JW (1972) Predation byAcanthaster and its effect on coral species diversity. Am Nat 106:487–492
Pringle CM, Rowe GL, Triska FJ, Fernandez JF, West J (1993) Landscape linkages between geothermal activity and solute composition and ecological response in surface waters draining the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica. Limnol Oceanogr 38:753–774
Rogers CS (1993) Hurricanes and coral reefs: the intermediate disturbance hypothesis revisited. Coral Reefs 12:127–137
Shannon CE, Weaver W (1949) The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, USA
Sutarna IN (1990) Shape and condition of living coral colonies in the waters around Banda Islands, central Maluku. In: Praseno DP, Atmadja WS (eds) Waters of the Maluku and its Environments. Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Ambon, pp 135–147 (Bahasa Indonesia)
Tomascik T, Sander F (1987) Effects of eutrophication on reef-building corals. II. Structure of scleractinian coral communities on fringing reefs, Barbados, West Indies. Mar Biol 94:53–75
Van Bergen MJ, Erfan RD, Sriwana T, Suharyono K, Poorter RPE, Verekamp JC, Vroon PZ, Wirakusumah AD (1989) Spatial geochemical variations of arc volcanism around the Banda Sea. Neth J Sea Res 24:313–322
van Woesik R, Ayling AM, Mapstone B (1991) Impact of tropical cyclone ‘Ivor’ on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. J Coast Res 7:551–558
Veron JEN (1986) Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific. Australian Institute of Marine Sciences. Angus and Robertson, North Ryde, Australia
Wallace CC (1994) New species and a new species-group of the coral genusAcropora (Scleractinia: Astrocoeniina: Acroporidae) from Indo-Pacific locations. Invertebr Taxon 8:961–988
Wilkinson L (1989) SYSTAT: The system for statistics. SYSTAT, Evanston, IL, USA
Woodley JD, 19 others (1981) Hurricane Allen's impact on Jamaican coral reefs. Science 214:749–755
Zar JH (1984) Biostatistical analysis. Prentice-Hall, Engelwood Cliffs, N.J., USA
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tomascik, T., van Woesik, R. & Mah, A.J. Rapid coral colonization of a recent lava flow following a volcanic eruption, Banda Islands, Indonesia. Coral Reefs 15, 169–175 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01145887
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01145887