• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.268-281
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• 2023

Coral reef fisheries are prominent for the archipelagic countries' food sufficiency and security. Studies showed that fish abundance and biomass are affected by biophysical variables. The present study determines which biophysical variables are important predictors of fish diversity, abundance, and biomass. The study used available monitoring data from the Indonesian Research Center for Oceanography, the National Board for Research and Innovation. Data were collected from 245 transects in 19 locations distributed across the Indonesian Archipelago, including the eastern Indian Ocean, Sunda Shelf (Karimata Sea), Wallacea (Flores and Banda Seas), and the western Pacific Ocean. Principal component analysis and multiple regression model were administered to 13 biophysical metrics against 11 variables of coral reef fishes, i.e., diversity, abundance, and biomass of coral reef fishes at three trophic levels. The results showed for the first time that the covers of other fauna, coral rubbles, and soft corals were the three most important predictor variables for nearly all coral reef fish variables. Other fauna cover was the important predictor for all 11 coral reef fish variables. Coral rubble cover was the predictor for ten variables, but carnivore fish abundance. Soft coral cover was a good predictor for corallivore, carnivore, and targeted fishes. Despite important predictors for corallivore and carnivore fish variables, hard coral cover was not the critical predictor for herbivore fish variables. The other important predictor variables with a consistent pattern were dead coral covered with algae and rocks. Dead coral covered with algae was an important predictor for herbivore fishes, while the rock was good for only carnivore fishes.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.23-36
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• 2010

The Cat Ba Islands in Hai Phong City, northern Vietnam, consist of a large limestone island with a maximum height of 322 m above sea level and 366 small limestone islets with a total area of about $180\;km^2$. The islands are relicts of karst limestone mountains that became submerged during the Holocene transgression 7000 - 8000 year ago. The combination of the longtime karst process and recent marine processes in the monsoonal tropical zone has created a very diversity landscape on the Cat Ba Islands that can be divided into 3 habitat types with 16 forms. The first habitat type is the karst mountains and hills, including karst mountains and hills, karst valleys and dolines, karst lakes, karst caves, and old marine terraces. The second habitat type is the limestone island coast, including beaches, mangrove marshes, tidal flats, rocky coasts, marine notch caves, marine karst lakes, and bights. The third habitat type is karst plains submerged by the sea, including karst cones (fengcong) and towers (fengling), bedrock exposed on the seabed, sandy mud seabed, and submerged channels. Like the landscape, the biodiversity is also high in ecosystems composed of scrub cover - bare hills, rainy tropical forests, paddy fields and gardens, swamps, caves, beaches, mangrove forests, tidal flats, rocky coasts, marine krast lakes, coral reefs, hard bottoms, seagrass beds and soft bottoms. The ecosystems on the Cat Ba Islands that support very high species biodiversity include tropical evergreen rainforests, soft bottoms; coral reefs, mangrove forests, and marine karst lakes. A total of 2,380 species have been recorded in the Cat Ba Islands, included 741 species of terrestrial plants; 282 species of terrestrial animals; 30 species of mangrove plants; 287 species of phytoplankton; 79 species of seaweed; 79 species of zooplankton; 196 species of marine fishes; 154 species of corals; and 538 species of zoobenthos. Many of these species are listed in the Red Book of Vietnam as endangered species, included the white-headed or Cat Ba langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus), a famous endemic species. Human activities have resulted in significantly changes to the landscape end ecosytems of the Cat Ba islands; however, many natural aspects of the islandsd have been preserved. For this reason, the Cat Ba Islands were recognized as a Biological Reserved Area by UNESCO in 2004.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.342-347
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• 2008

Mortality and growth rate of the soft coral, Dendronephthya gigantea, from Jejudo Island on the southern coast of Korea were investigated from February 2003 to October 2004 using SCUBA diving. 48 individuals with variable sizes of D. gigantea of the depth of 15m were tagged with flagging tapes and plastic films, and then monitored with two month intervals. The average mortality of two-month term for the study period was 50.4%, with the peak of 84.6% during the summer storms in August - October 2003. About the size class mortality, individuals of size class I(${\leq}$10 cm) showed the highest mortality, followed by size class III(>20 cm) and size class II(10 cm-20 cm). Growth rate did not show a seasonal pattern. For growth in length, individuals of D. gigantea grew about 3cm in average for two-month period, with a maximum growth of 6.4 cm which occurred in August - October 2003. For growth in diameter, individuals grew about 0.3 cm for 2 month term, with a maximum of 1.4cm in April - June 2004. Individuals of size class I usually grew faster than those of larger size classes. D. gigantea population in Jejudo Island was strongly affected by summer storms, which was due to annual event of summer typhoon. Never the less, it appears that the local population can be maintained by fast growth of the juvenile stage and active recruitment to compensate the high mortality caused by the summer disturbance.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.11-24
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• 2010

Seongnyu Cave have developed along the NE-SW direction in carbonate rocks of the Joseon Supergroup. The cave mostly shows horizontal passages and contains three lakes. The main passage is about 330 m long with 540 m-long branches, thus the total length of the cave is about 870 m. Through cave diving, about 85 m-long new passages were discovered. Numerous speleothems such as soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites, columns, flowstones, rimstones, cave shields, cave corals, curtains (and bacon sheets), cave pearls, cave flowers, helictites and calcite rafts can be found in the cave. Especially, some speleothems which were believed to have grown in the past were discovered in the submerged passage, and a few stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones and columns were eroded (or corroded) by the cave stream that flowed on the floor. Because these speleothems only grow in subaerial environments within limestone caves, it appears that they grew when there was no lake in the cave and became submerged as the lake level rose in the cave. The presence of these speleothems in the lakes indicate that they only grew during glacial periods when sea-level was lower. Therefore, detailed investigation of these speleothems will provide invaluable information on paleoclimatic evolution around the Korean peninsula in the future.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.214-227
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• 1998

This study was carried out to investigate the composition and diagenesis of the carbonate rocks from the seamounts in the Federated States of Micronesia, Central Pacific. Most of the samples were dredged from the water depth of about 1000-3000 m mainly in Chuuk Island, Hunter Bank, Caroline Ridge and Yap Trench. The carbonate rocks are either pelagic sediment mainly of planktonic foraminifera or shallow-marine sediment of corals, calcareous algae, mollusks and echinoderms. The rocks are altered texturally and chemically, except for those from the Hunter Bank and Yap A. The presence of shallow-marine cements suggests that the carbonate sediment has been subsided or reworked to the present water depth after deposition in shallow-marine environments. The texture of the carbonate sediment is reminiscent of meteoric diagenesis; however, the stable carbon isotopic composition of the altered rock samples shows affinity with that of sea water and the oxygen isotopic values are slightly enriched or same as compared to those of unaltered samples. These stable isotopic data suggest that the carbonate sediment of the study area has been diagenetically altered in the present deep-marine environment.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.738-751
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• 2023

The Sembilan Archipelago is famous for its great biodiversity, in which the humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) (locally named Napoleon fish) is the primary commodity (economically important), and currently, the environmental degradation occurs due to anthropogenic activities. This study aimed to examine the eco-environmental parameters and assess their influence on the abundance of humphead wrasse and other coral reef fish compositions in the Sembilan Archipelago. Direct field monitoring was performed using a visual census throughout an approximately one km transect. Coral cover data collection and assessment were also carried out. A coastal water quality index (CWQI) was used to assess the water quality status. Furthermore, statistical-based analyses [hierarchical clustering, Pearson's correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA)] were performed to examine the correlation between eco-environmental parameters. The Napoleon fish was only found at stations 1 and 2, with a density of about 3.8 Ind/ha, aligning with the dominant composition of the family Serranidae (covering more than 15% of the total community) and coinciding with the higher coral mortality and lower reef fish abundance. The coral reef conditions were generally ideal for supporting marine life, with a living coral percentage of about > 50% in all stations. Based on CWQI, the study area is categorized as good and excellent water quality. Of the 60 parameter values examined, the phytoplankton abundance, Napoleon fish, and temperature are highly correlated, with a correlation coefficient value greater than 0.7, and statistically significant (F < 0.05). Although the adaptation of reef fish to water quality parameters varies greatly, the most influential parameters in shaping their composition in the study area are living corals, nitrites, ammonia, larval abundance, and temperature.