ABSTRACT
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Field Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Analytical Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Spatial Patterns in Soft Coral Richness, and the Influence of Turbidity and Sedimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Spatial Distribution of Turbidity and Sedimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Patterns in Soft and Hard Coral Cover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Depth-Related Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Indo-Pacific coral reefs contain globally the highest level of biodiversity of any marine ecosystem, with the centre of this biodiversity located around the archipelago of Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is part of the Indo-Pacific biogeographic region, and contains a subset of the Indo-Pacific taxa found in the most species-rich areas farther north, as well as species that are not found anywhere else but on the GBR (Veron, 1995). Around 2800 coral reefs, extensive seagrass areas, species-rich soft-and hard-bottom inter-reefal and lagoonal ecosystems,
continental slopes, and pelagic ecosystems are all represented within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which is the world’s largest World Heritage Area (Wachenfeld et al., 1998).
