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Diversity of subtidal benthic and hard coral communities on sloping and vertical seawalls in Singapore

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Abstract

Decades of coastal urbanisation have replaced many natural shorelines with seawalls. Marine communities have been documented on these replacement habitats, but little is known about the effects of seawall inclination on the diversity and depth distribution of sessile organisms on this artificial substrate. Surveys of hard coral and other sessile communities in Singapore indicated that benthic communities at the deeper zone (− 2 m chart datum) were significantly different between three sloping (about 33° inclination) and three vertical seawalls of similar age. Hard coral communities were significantly different between sloping and vertical seawalls and between 0 m chart datum and − 2 m chart datum. Hard coral communities on sloping seawalls were also significantly more diverse than on vertical seawalls. At both depths, sloping seawalls were dominated by abiota with hard coral comprising appr. 17% of the total surface, while vertical seawalls were dominated by algal assemblage with hard coral comprising appr. 10% of the total surface. Overall, the results showed that sloping seawalls were significantly better at supporting coral communities, likely due to less intensive habitat compression and buffered wave action on them, especially at 0 m chart datum. The need to understand how surface topography affects benthic and coral communities in light of growing coastal urbanisation is also highlighted. This study emphasises how sloping seawalls can support greater marine biodiversity than vertical seawalls.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable inputs and the staff from St John's Island National Marine Laboratory for their generous assistance.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Marine Science Research and Development Programme (Award No. MSRDP-05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tropical Marine Science Institute, National University of Singapore, 14 Kent Ridge Road, Singapore, 119223, Singapore

    Y. P. Kikuzawa, T. C. Toh, Y-L. Lee, P. L. Loo, K. S. Tan & L. M. Chou

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 16 Science Drive 4, Singapore, 117558, Singapore

    C. S. L. Ng, S. Q. Sam & Y. Z. Chua

  3. College of Alice and Peter Tan, National University of Singapore, 8 College Avenue East, Singapore, 138615, Singapore

    T. C. Toh

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  1. Y. P. Kikuzawa
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Correspondence to Y. P. Kikuzawa.

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All applicable national and institutional guidelines for animal testing, animal care and use of animals were followed by the authors.

Sampling and field studies

All necessary permits for sampling and observational field studies have been obtained by the authors from the National Parks Board (NParks; NP/RP17-037-2).

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The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on a reasonable request.

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K.Y.P., N.C.S.L., T.T.C. and S.S.Q. conceived, designed and conducted the research and experiments, along with data analyses. All authors wrote, read and approve the manuscript.

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Communicated by B. W. Hoeksema

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 3 List of all hard coral species recorded on sloping and vertical seawalls at Lazarus Island, Singapore, at 0 m chart datum and − 2 m chart datum. ‘1’ refers to presence and ‘0’ refers to absence
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Kikuzawa, Y.P., Ng, C.S.L., Toh, T.C. et al. Diversity of subtidal benthic and hard coral communities on sloping and vertical seawalls in Singapore. Mar. Biodivers. 50, 95 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01118-z

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