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Tubastraea Coccinea Lesson, 1829 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

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Tubastraea Coccinea Lesson, 1829 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India Indian Journal of Geo Marine Sciences Vol. 47 (11), November 2018, pp. 2241-2247 Report on status of invasive Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1829 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India Tamal Mondal1*, C. Raghunathan1,2&Kailash Chandra2 1Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair-744 102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India 2Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata-700 053, West Bengal, India *[Email: [email protected]] Received 25 April 2017; revised 24 July 2017 The quantum of ecological effects caused by aggregation of Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1829 was reported and proved as invader for the native species. T. coccineais reported from several areas of Andaman and Nicobar Islands during this present study. Present paper deals with the elaborately executed status survey of T. coccinea in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. [Key words: Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1829, Invader, Andaman and Nicobar Islands] Introduction including three species as invasive while two Andaman and Nicobar Islands (geographical species are partially invasive in nature from Nordic distributional range between- Lat. 06 to 14°N and region13. The species under the genus Cassiopea Long. 92 to 94°E) are enriched with diversified are frequently reported as invasive species hermatypic and ahermatypic scleractinian corals worldwide14, 15. In 2015, Aequorea macrodactyla was mostly as fringing type of reefs along the coastal areas recorded as invasive species from Mediterranean of mostly shallow continental shelf region. Studies of Sea16. Tubastraea tagusensis is a native to the coastal and marine faunal communities in the Galapagos Archipelago while it is considered as Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well as north-east invasive species in the Brazilian coast11. T. coccinea Indian Ocean are generally managed with the is commonly known as orange-cup coral, non-reef exploration of wide number of faunal communities building and azooxanthellate coral species. It is including least concern group of fauna1, while known as pan-tropical in distribution17-20. This species introduced and invasive species have not been was described from a type specimen of Bora Bora20. considerably studied2-6. Biological invasion is one of Preferred habitat is shaded vertical surfaces and the major threats for the biodiversity, economy and caverns down to depths of max recorded 37 m18, 20 and livelihood of the developing nations7 as well as ship wrecks, while artificial structures are also conservation concern of global communities8 due to preferred by this species17, 19, 21-25. In the Caribbean, their profound impacts on natural communities9. T. coccinea represents a great competition with The presence of exotic species may lead to the other benthic invertebrates such as sponge and alteration of marine community structure including native corals for the acquirement of substratum rocky shore as well as coral reef communities6,10,11. space23. During the recent studies, this species i.e., The exact number of invasive cnidarian species T. coccinea is recorded from several areas of is still under the consideration of evaluation. Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Being an invasive According to ISSG12, a total of three species of species for several areas of the world, the cnidarians such as Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1829, distributional pattern of this species is a great Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld, 1884 and concern for the ecological studies to safeguard Carijoa riisei (Duchassaing and Michelotti, 1860) are the native species. The present paper deals with recorded as invasive species. Among these, one the distribution and abundance patterns of T. coccinea species i.e., T. coccinea Lesson, 1829 is under the in Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well as order scleractinian. However, the NOBANIS database investigations on the possible routes of invasion represents a total of eight non-native cnidarian species and subsequent spread. 2242 INDIAN J. MAR. SCI., VOL. 47, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2018 Material and Methods The study was conducted from August 2009 to February 2016 at 439 sites along with artificial structures like jetties in Andaman and Nicobar Islands by employing Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) diving and snorkeling to evaluate the status of T. coccinea up to the maximum depth of 43 m (Fig. 2). Studies were carried out to estimate the distribution and abundance of T. coccinea according to vertical gradients corresponding with the depth of the coast and the Fig. 1 — Occurrence of Tubastraea coccinea colonies in horizontal gradients by following the methods of De Andaman and Nicobar Islands Paula and Creed6, Creed and Oliveira26 and Creed27. Fig. 2 — Distributional record of T. Coccinea from different areas in Andaman and Nicobar Islands MONDAL et al.: REPORT ON STATUS OF INVASIVE TUBASTRAEA COCCINEA 2243 Scoring the relative abundance of T. coccinea different regions of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. was examined according to the DAFOR scale Principal Component Analysis was carried out on the (D = Dominant populations with mono specific basis of depth gradient among the major three patches; A= Abundant frequently occurring mono regions of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The specific patches; F= Frequent isolated colonies; distance based metric method ‘Principal Component O = Occasional or less than 10 colonies or small Analysis (PCA)’ was generated by using groups; R= Rare - between 1 and 5 colonies) by PAST-Paleontological Statistics-Version 3.030. Sutherland method28. 25 m line transects in triplicate were surveyed to estimating the coverage of Results and Discussion T. coccinea using the DAFOR scale. The data were The studies on the status evaluation of documented under the caves and crevices of the Tubastraea coccinea reveals its presence in natural reef environment during the LIT studies by major 26 islands or areas of Andaman and considering follow up reverse method while the Nicobar Islands which are well connected by pilings of the jetties were also examined carefully shipping routes.GPS coordinates of the recorded where LIT was studied vertically according to the places are given below (Table 1). depth gradient. Species density was documented In general, T. coccinea was found in shadow or besides calculating by Simpson’s index29. dark places mostly lower region of natural reefs, The observation was made on the reef associated inside the dark cave, groove and crevices, artificial T. coccinea and its degree of bio-invasion in structure, abandoned ship hulls, and wrecks etc. of Table 1 — Distribution of T. coccinea in different locations of Andaman and Nicobar Islands S.No Study region Recorded Places Coordinates Latitude Longitude 1 Region 1 Landfall Island St. 1 13º38.172'N 92º59.279'E 2 Landfall Island St. 2 13º37.224'N 93º00.583'E 3 Chanel Island 13º39.407'N 93º01.494'E 4 Trilby Island 13º24.417'N 93º04.086'E 5 Region 2 Orchid Island 12º59.594'N 92º59.078'E 6 Oyster Island 12º59.370'N 92º58.234'E 7 Region 3 Outram Island 12º13.431'N 93º03.113'E 8 Henry Lawrence Island 12º09.317'N 93º05.415'E 9 Inglis Island 12º08.372'N 93º06.364'E 10 Wilson Island 12º04.483'N 92º56.557'E 11 Havelock Island St. 1 12º02.582'N 92º57.507'E 12 Havelock Island St. 2 11º52.585'N 93º00.480'E 13 Havelock Island St. 3 11º54.243'N 93º05.162'E 14 Shoal Bay 11º56.034'N 92º47.209'E 15 Region 4 North Bay 11º42.283'N 92º45.361'E 16 Region 5 Pongibalu 11º30.568'N 92º39.120'E 17 Riflemen Island 11º30.548'N 92º38.448'E 18 Rutland Island St. 1 11º28.229'N 92º40.415'E 19 Rutland Island St. 2 11º25.442'N 92º41.162'E 20 Rutland Island St. 3 11º22.505'N 92º41.448'E 21 Cinque Island 11º19.292'N 92º42.509'E 22 Region 6 Little Andaman Island 10º35.203'N 92º33.346'E 23 Region 7 Katchal Island 07º59.027'N 93º24.575'E 24 Region 8 Kondul Island 07º12.556'N 93º43.091'E 25 Pigeon Island 07º03.286'N 93º55.051'E 26 Great Nicobar Island 07º01.044'N 93º56.314'E 2244 INDIAN J. MAR. SCI., VOL. 47, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2018 Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The density of the depth range of 6-10m harbours the highest degree T. coccinea was reported high in the man-made of individual occurrence (Fig. 5). The detailed depth structures like jetties in comparison with the natural analysis showed that the maximum number of reef ecosystem of South Andaman (D=0.89) (Fig. 3) colonies of T. coccinea was recorded at the depth of while it is reverse for other two other regions viz., 11-15 m in North and Middle Andaman. Maximum North and Middle Andaman, and Nicobar where numbers of colonies were recorded at South Andaman natural reef ecosystem harbours greater density. while Nicobar represented the minimum colonies. The occurrence of this species was evaluated from Colonies were reported up to the depth of 43 m but eight regions (Fig. 4) of Andaman and Nicobar the coverage of distribution was very limited or Islands on the basis of DAFOR scale. The region 1 restricted. and 2 were noted under North and Middle Andaman The introduction of exotic species as well as their region. It was recorded that region 1 i.e. Land fall, distribution in any native environment influences Channel and Trilby Islands represented T. coccinea as extensive environmental damages. Deterioration of frequently isolated colonies during the study period static native ecological strata can be affected by the while the region 2 i.e. Orchid and Oyster Islands bio-invasive species in the form of competition, harbor near about similar type of frequent predation and which imparts widespread role for the distributional pattern of T. coccinea. Regions 3 to alteration food webs structural components and 6 were considered under South Andaman region.
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