Study of community and structure of hermatypic corals in Jiapeng Islands

The community and structure of hermatypic corals was surveyed from Jiapeng Islands in October 2004. The results showed the hermatypic corals were 16 species among 8 families, and the dominate species were Acropora pruinosa (Brook), Turbinaria peltata (Esper), Echinophyllia aspera (Ellis Solander), Pavona decussate (Dana) and Porites compressa (Dana). The average line probability of hermatypic corals was 48.2%. The high density sites located within small bays. The spatial distribution presented vertical zone obviously, it mainly distributed in depth of 5~15m. The average line probability of killed hermatypic corals was 7.1%. The resources of coral reef have overexploited and seriously destroyed in this area, the protection measures were also put forward in the paper.