Yuri Yakovlevich Latypov

A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Far East Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS), Vladivostok, Russia
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2014, Vol. 4, No. 39   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0039
Received: 29 May, 2014    Accepted: 30 Jun., 2014    Published: 28 Jul., 2014

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Zonal structure and composition of coral communities of so-called “unstructured reefs” were analyzed in various reefs of Socotra Island and Vietnam. Those unstructured reefs located on the periphery of the Indian Ocean, the high eutrophication waters of Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea. Scheme assumed succession of reefs formed structural morphological zonation (lagoon, reef flat, etc.). Unstructured reefs represent a stable ecosystem adapted to strongly turbid and eutrophic waters. The reefs have stable species composition and community structure in the same bionomical zones on different reefs, and are characterized by high species diversity. The composition and distribution of coral communities on encrusting reefs, forming heterotrophic internal and autotrophic external components of an integral ecosystem do not differ from such on reefs in terms of a clear pattern of zonation in general throughout the Indo-Pacific. 

Unstructured reef; Structure; Species composition; Indo-pacific