The abundance and diversity patterns of seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata at Sodwana Bay, South Africa

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dc.contributor.advisorAnderson, R Jen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorBolton, John Jen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorGersun, Leanneen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-06-01T14:14:12Z
dc.date.available2015-06-01T14:14:12Z
dc.date.issued2014en_ZA
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThe high latitude coral communities of southern Africa suffered minimal impacts during mass bleaching events in the recent past. However, during the 2005 warm-water anomaly in the southern Indian Ocean, coral bleaching reached unprecedented levels. There is surprisingly little known about the fate of bleached corals, which may either regain their zooxanthellae and recover, or may die, in which case they generally become overgrown by macroalgae. The nature and dynamics of this algal overgrowth are not well understood. This study was done on Two-Mile Reef, Sodwana Bay, located in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a World Heritage Site. The first aim was to investigate the abundance and diversity of benthic algal communities colonising different hard substrata (comprising bleached digitate, brain and plate coral assemblages, and beach rock). The second was to compare the algal communities colonising various artificial hard substrata. The third was to document the species of non-geniculate coralline red algae found on the natural hard substrata during sampling. Fieldwork was carried out during the marine autumn (March) and spring (September) of 2010 using SCUBA. A total of 90 quadrats (10 cm x 10 cm) were sampled and the underlying substratum was recorded and classified. A Braun-Blanquet scale was used to assign cover-abundance values to each species within each quadrat. Additionally, the relative cover of different types of substrata was estimated using line-point intercept methods. Multivariate analysis (detrended correspondence analysis) and cluster analysis (complete linkage Bray-Curtis) were used to show how substrata and season relate with respect to their seaweed flora. Additionally, Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric tests with pairwise Mann-WhitneyU-tests were used to examine differences in macroalgal assemblages among substratum types.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationGersun, L. (2014). <i>The abundance and diversity patterns of seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata at Sodwana Bay, South Africa</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Biological Sciences. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13051en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationGersun, Leanne. <i>"The abundance and diversity patterns of seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata at Sodwana Bay, South Africa."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Biological Sciences, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13051en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationGersun, L. 2014. The abundance and diversity patterns of seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata at Sodwana Bay, South Africa. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Gersun, Leanne AB - The high latitude coral communities of southern Africa suffered minimal impacts during mass bleaching events in the recent past. However, during the 2005 warm-water anomaly in the southern Indian Ocean, coral bleaching reached unprecedented levels. There is surprisingly little known about the fate of bleached corals, which may either regain their zooxanthellae and recover, or may die, in which case they generally become overgrown by macroalgae. The nature and dynamics of this algal overgrowth are not well understood. This study was done on Two-Mile Reef, Sodwana Bay, located in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a World Heritage Site. The first aim was to investigate the abundance and diversity of benthic algal communities colonising different hard substrata (comprising bleached digitate, brain and plate coral assemblages, and beach rock). The second was to compare the algal communities colonising various artificial hard substrata. The third was to document the species of non-geniculate coralline red algae found on the natural hard substrata during sampling. Fieldwork was carried out during the marine autumn (March) and spring (September) of 2010 using SCUBA. A total of 90 quadrats (10 cm x 10 cm) were sampled and the underlying substratum was recorded and classified. A Braun-Blanquet scale was used to assign cover-abundance values to each species within each quadrat. Additionally, the relative cover of different types of substrata was estimated using line-point intercept methods. Multivariate analysis (detrended correspondence analysis) and cluster analysis (complete linkage Bray-Curtis) were used to show how substrata and season relate with respect to their seaweed flora. Additionally, Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric tests with pairwise Mann-WhitneyU-tests were used to examine differences in macroalgal assemblages among substratum types. DA - 2014 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2014 T1 - The abundance and diversity patterns of seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata at Sodwana Bay, South Africa TI - The abundance and diversity patterns of seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata at Sodwana Bay, South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13051 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/13051
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationGersun L. The abundance and diversity patterns of seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata at Sodwana Bay, South Africa. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Biological Sciences, 2014 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13051en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Biological Sciencesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherMarine Biologyen_ZA
dc.titleThe abundance and diversity patterns of seaweed communities on natural and artificial substrata at Sodwana Bay, South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMScen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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