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Substrate damage and recovery after giant clam shell mining at remote coral reefs in the southern South China Sea

  • Special Issue: Fluvial and Geomorphological Features
  • Published:
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Abstract

Giant clam shell mining (GCSM), a unique phenomenon occurring at remote coral reefs in the southern South China Sea (SCS), forms striking scars on the reef flats and damages the reef flat substrate. Through image analyses at three times (2004.02.02, 2014.02.26, and 2019.04.10) and in situ surveys at Ximen Reef, a representative site that has experienced GCSM, we quantified the GCSM-generated substrate damage and the corresponding recovery. GCSM was estimated to have occurred sometime between 2012 and 2014, causing reduction in live coral subarea and formation of micro-relief as trenches and mounds. GCSM-generated damage was restricted to the reef flat. After GCSM, coral and algae subarea increased, and the trenches and mounds tended to be filled and eroded, representing a natural recovery of the substrate. The legal prohibition on human disturbances at the coral reefs contributed to substrate recovery at Ximen Reef. This case also implied that recovery of the other coral reefs that suffered from GCSM is possible.

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Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their hard work and constructive comments and suggestions that have helped improve this paper substantially. We also thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ocean and Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, CAS, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Shengnan Zhou, Qi Shi, Hongqiang Yang, Xiyang Zhang, Xiaoju Liu, Fei Tan & Pin Yan

  2. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China

    Shengnan Zhou, Qi Shi, Hongqiang Yang, Xiyang Zhang, Xiaoju Liu, Fei Tan & Pin Yan

  3. Nansha Marine Ecological and Environmental Research Station, CAS, Sansha, Hainan, 573199, China

    Hongqiang Yang

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shengnan Zhou, Xiaoju Liu & Fei Tan

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  1. Shengnan Zhou
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  2. Qi Shi
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Correspondence to Qi Shi.

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Foundation

Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), No.GML2019ZD0206, No.GML2019ZD0104; National Science & Technology Fundamental Resources Investigation Program of China, No.2018FY100103; The Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.XDA13010103; Special Support Program for Cultivating High-level Talents in Guangdong Province, No.2019BT02H594; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 41776128, No. U1901217

Author

Zhou Shengnan (1993-), PhD Candidate, specialized in coral reef geomorphology and environment. E-mail: zhousn@scsio.ac.cn

Appendix: Supplementary Materials

Supplementary materials (Figures S1–S5 and Tables S1–S3) associated with this paper can be found in the supplementary materials file.

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Zhou, S., Shi, Q., Yang, H. et al. Substrate damage and recovery after giant clam shell mining at remote coral reefs in the southern South China Sea. J. Geogr. Sci. 31, 1655–1674 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-021-1916-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-021-1916-y

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