LIVING CORAL REEFS OF NORTHEAST NEW-GUINE BL Kojis NJ Quinn 1985

8/7/2019 LIVING CORAL REEFS OF NORTHEAST NEW-GUINE BL Kojis NJ Quinn 1985

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Proceedings of the Fifth International corar Reef congress, Tahiti, i9g5, vor. 6

LIVING CORAL REEFS OF NORTHEAST NEW-GUINEARECIFS CORALLIENS ACTUELS DU NORD.EST DE LA NOUVELLE.GUINE

B.L. KOJISL.I.H.S., Lae, PAPUA NEW GUINEAr.J. QUrXNFlsheries Department, Papua New Guinea University of TechnologyLae, PAPUA NEW GUINEAH.R. CLAERBOI'DTLaing Island Biological Station, Universit6 libre de BruxellesBogia, PAPUA NEW GUINEAABSTRACT

New Guinea is the largest island lying cornpletely within the equatorial tropics. Evit is just north of the Great Barrier Reef, little is known of the living coral reefs surrounisland. Whitehousets (1973) account of coral reefs in New Guinea lists no scientificincorrectly states that along the eagtern coast from East Cape to the Huon Peninsula rtcoral reonly found as occasional small fringing reefs and patch reefstt and that on the northern sidisland the coastline isrrwithout any active reefsil for 1200 km.This study is a preliminary survey of the extent of the living reefs and of the coralfound along the northeast corner of the island of New Guinea. Seventy genera and 16 familidentified. The familles identified include: Acroporidae, Agarlciidae, CaryophDendrophylli idae, Favi idae, Fungi idae, Merulinidae, Muss idae, Oculinidae, Pectini idae, PocillPoritidae, Thamnasteriidae and Trachyphyllidae.

B.ESIJT{ELa Nouvelle Guinde est la plus grande ile totalement situ6e dans la zonequterle se trouve juste au nord de la Grande Barrilre, on ne connait que peu decoralllens actuels entoulant cette i1e. La contrlbution de Whitehouse (1973) sur les

intertropica Ichoses sur Ir6c ifs de

1es cfami 1 lesCaryophPocillo

Guin6e ne donne pas dtappellations scientifiques et indique, ! tort, que le long de 1a c6te estEst i 1a Pt5ninsule Huon:rtles r6cifs coralliens sont limit6s i dioccasionnels p.iit" r6cifs fret des pat6s coralliensrr, et que sur la bordure septentrionale de 1ri1e, la c6te est ld6r6cifs vivantsrr sur 1200 krn.Ce survol pr6liminaire porte sur ltimportance des rdcifs coralliens et surcoraux trouvds sur ltangle nord de lri1e de Nouvelle-Guin6e. 70 genres et l6identifi6s. Les farnilles identifi6es cqnprennent: Acroporidae, Agariciidae,Dendrophylliidae, Faviidae, Fungiidae, Merulinidae, Mussidae, Oculinid.ae, iectiniidae,Poritidae, Thamnasteriidae and Trachyphyllidae. ridae,

thoughg thefs areof theSeneraes were11idae,ida e,

Bienrdc ifsvelledu Capartsvue deres deont 6t611idae,


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INTRODUCTIONNew Guinea is the largest lsland conpletelywithin the' equatorlal tropics and lies just northof the northern tip of the Great Barrler Reef.Little is known of npst of the livlng coral reefssurrounding the igland. Reef surveys of note haveonly been done along the Papuan coast (Weber,1973; Andn., 1982) and the reefs of the Loutsiadeand and t'robriand Archipelagoes (cahi11, Heatwoleand Goldn4n, 1973) (Frg. 1)-Surveys of the reefs of the southeastern halfof the iSland of New Gr:inea (Papua New Grinea)were oftedr inaccurate. In Davisrs (I922a; b;1928) revlews of the geonorphology of coral reefsof the wofLd there were lengthy discussions aboutthe genfeis of the reefs of the LouisiadeArchipelago. These studles lrere apparently baeedonly on frydrographic charts and on a few, verybrief recpnnaisgance reports on the geology.Davls had not traveled to the area ao it wasn'tuntil a 1959 expedition to the area that allovredFairbridgre G973) to note thet rr. . . sorE of his(Davis) ti"j"r conclusions, e.g., concerning the'unclift'l (uncliffed) coasts of Tagula and otherislend irl the louisiades, $rere found by us to beconpletelly falserr (p. 163).Errorleous records of New Grinea reefs are not

condor p1. 146oE 148eE 4onBay(Laing ls.)#arkar ls.o BISMARK S EACroisilles b*'' o

$L*, sfen0nlrlnrr6lami ls.

HUONGULF& Longuerue ls.

Ward

t REEFS

PAPUA NEW GUI

O\, N'**rJ)\\-/Ward Hunt

.{r08rni0obsv\5\Ea"tc"o"rso.i"t4trr,n,,,g -Figure 1: Map of coral reefs of

limlted to pioneer geouorphologists. Re.Whitehouse's (1973) account of coral reefs in NewG:inea incorrectly states that along the eaeterncoaet from East Cape to the Huon Peninsula rrcoralreefs are only found as occasional enrall fringingreefs and patch reefsrr and that on the northernside of the ieland the coastllne is ttwithout anyactive reefsrr (p. I77) for 1250 km. On thecontrary, as we will show below, frlnging barrlerreefs of high coral cover and specles diversityare corilrDfl along theEe shoreg particularly awayfrom river nouths.Mentlon of the reefs of northeestern NewGuinea have been made by authors ln papers thatare concerned primarily with toplcs other than thestatus of present day reefs. Stoddart (1972)described the effects of an earthquake on thereefs near Madang and noted the htgh speciesdiversity of these reefs desplte being ln a regionthat is anDng the nost seismically active in theworld. Along the northeast coast of the HuonPeninsula are 80 km of upralsed coral terraceswhose geology has been extensively studted (e.g.,Chappell , 1973 ). However, the adjacent livingreefs have been only brlefly descrlbed and only 20roughly identified coral species ltsted (Chappell,7974). The extent of livlng coral reefs ofnortheast New G-rinea flnally recelved reeognitionin Loffler (1977). He graphical-ly represented

1450E

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northeast New G\:inea.


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Table 1 continued

YY

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*Coral general listed are from Weber (1973)(Table 2). Subgenera have been excluded andsynonynies follow those of the publicationsrEntioned in the text.Whitehouse'e (1973) staternent, it is not rra clearstrean, rippling over gravel.. . 't (p. L77 ), butrather a large, braided, shallow river whichcarrles m,rch sedirnent into the Huon ftlf (Quinnand Kojis, 1982; 1984). In March_.,1985, theMarkham River was carrying 0.8 g I ' with anestirnated total annual transport of 10 milliontonnes of sedinent into the Huon G,rlf. In concertwith other snraller rivers on the western coast theMarkham River lirnits reef growth along the easterncoast as far as Cape Arkona, 45 km from its nDuthto sporadic fringing reefs, the closest of whichis at Slngaua, 18 km from the Markharn River. IromCape Arkona to Finschhafen fringing reefs comnonlyline the coast except near river nouths.Ten kilometers off the southeast point of theHuon Peninsula lies the Tami Atoll. It is 3 km indianeter and has three islands, all upraisedlinestone about 10 m in elevation. The lagoon isabout 18 rn deep with a sandy bottom and coralgrowth is restricted to the top 10 m. Strongoceanic currents sweep by the atoll and the outercoral assemblages vary with exposure. Ihe reef isoval in an east west orientation with passages tothe north and south. Coral comm:nities are bothdiverse and extensive.In the Huon Gulf, 55 genera and 14 farnilies ofcorals were identified (Table 1) and rrDre generawill probably be found as collecting continues.the carbonate secreting non-scleractinian corals,Distichopora, Heliopora, 1\:bipora and Stylasterare present but rare in the Huon Gr1f. In fact,Helioporats presence is only indicated by beachfragnents found on Dot Island, south of Salanraua.In contrast, MilLepora is abundant. Hydrological

details about this area nay be found in lbjisQuinn (1984) and Quinn and Kojis (1982; 1984).Finschhafen to Cape Croisllles

The dominant reef type along the coast frorFinschhafen to Madang is the fri4ging reef. Thrseaward reef n:argin ig well defined and consistrof a steep fore-reef slope, droppirlg abruptly int


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over 807" of the coast from Cape Ward Hunt to CapeGroisilles as fringed by reefs and noted thatrr...fringing reefs occur along nost of Papua NewGuinears coastline ln spite of the generallytrDuntainous hinterland and considerable runoff andsedlmentation associated with itrr (p.118).With such a paucity of knowledge of even theexistence of mrch of Papua New Guinea's livingcoral reefs for nany years, it is not surprisingto find few taxonomic descriptions of corals eventhough New G:inea appears to lie near the centerof generic diversity of the Indo-Pacifichernntypic scleractinien coralg.SURVEY METHODS

Specinens were collected to depths of 50 rn atseveral reefs iq the Huon GrIf, in the viclnity ofMadang Harbor and at Hansa Bay using SCUBA:quiplent. Other sections of the reef aroundKarkar Island, Long Island, Manam Island, Tamilslands, Siessi Island, Wasu, Slalum, Finschhafen,Yadang and gapg Croisilles were surveyed atrarious tiree frorn 1980 to 1984. The reefs frornLae to Finschhafen, Saidor to Madang, Finschafento Slagsi Island and the south coast of the Huon}.lf and l4orobel Province were observed from lightrircraft. iTable I lists the coral genera found at 43ites along the Papua New Guinea coast. ltretenere were classified according to Veron andPtchon (1976, ',1979 and L982), Veron, Pichon andIljsnan-Best (1977) and Veron and Wallace (1984).

DESCRIPTIONS OF REEFSAlthough the northeastern New Guinea reefesontain everl norphological type of reef>riginally described by Darwin from patch reefs toatolls and bari'ter reefs, trDst of the reefs arefringing and parrier reefs. The 1ow latitude ofthese reefs places them outside the cyclone beltend, as a result, the crest is not subjected toextrenEly high] seas. In contrast to the GreatBarrier Reef fvhich ls subjected seasonally to

cyclones, there is a conspicuous absence of coralrubble and laige boulders.Cape Ward ttuni to Finechhafen

South of lrae, the first coral reef occurs 25km away at Btsarna. For the next 200 km southreefs frlnge iabout 110 km of the shorellne(approxiratel! 50% of the coast). Addltionally,there are 23 ]off-shore islands with 50 krn ofcoastline of which over 95% 1s surrounded by reef.Because of tl'te steeply sloping nature of theoff-shore sepbed whlch flanks the r.eesterncontlnuetion bflarge off-shorereglon. ]New Britain trench, very fewreefs have developed in thls

Table 1 : Scleractinian coral found in the HuonGu1f, Madang Harbour, Hansa Bay and Port l,bresbyrk,Papua New Gr:inea.HuonFanily and genus fulf Madang IIensaBay Port*Moresby

AcroporidaeAcroporaAnacroporaAs treoporaMontiporaAgaric iidaeCoeloserisffiEio?erisGptose?E--PachyserisPavona@.."dAstrocoeni idaeS tylocoeni e1 1aCaryophyll iidaeCatalaphyll iaEuphyl 1 iaPhysogyraPlerogyraDendrophyl 1 i idaeDendrophyl 1 iaHeteropBarilniaTubas treaffiEm-erl=raiTffi-BarbattoiaG;I;G;6tfr'."treaSiEioa;treeEchinoporaFaviaEii-vites6iEEreaEa;opfr;raLeptastreaLeptorial,bntas tread;6pE iTIaPlatygyraPlesiastreaFuGTTa;;-Cyc loser i sDiae er i s@HalomitraEEii6,fG.iaHerpetogloEsa

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XXxx x

Xxxx

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XY

xxx

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xxxxxxxX

xx

xx

Pseudocolunnagtrea* )

XXXX

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xJtxxxxxxxX

xxYxxxxxxX

xxXx,(xxxxXxxxxX

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XxxXxxx

Poda-baciaE]ffiffiiaSandalol ithaffiT6]fritra*)zooFTIF-Merul inldaeClavarinaGffi;_G!6p-frinialfus s idaeAcanthas treaCynarlnat,oGiEiliiaScolymiaGG.lic-ia andsynpTffi'

xxxheshoall4any of t[re lslands found in the Fly andLcnguerue Island groups are surrounded by fringlngreefs similia]r ln structure to the fringlng reefson-shore. Most of the lslands in the longuerueIsland group are htgh islands while severalislands of the Fly group are low coral cays. Ihecoral cover is conuronly over 70% ln the top 10 mand a 10% coral cover exists regularly at depthsover 30 m.the Markhan Rlver (Fig. 1) is the rnajor rlverdebouching into the Huon Gulf. Contrary to

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particular, Weber (1973) pointed out theconspicuous absence of Acrhelia on the Moresbyreef s. This species is FillEiF"t all three sitesin northeast New Grinea.0f the carbonate secreting, non-scleractiniancorals, Distichopora, Heliopora and Tubipora arenot comrDn on the reefs of northeast New Gulnea,but they apparently thrive in the Port ldoresbyarea (Weber, 1973). In contrast, Milleporaflourishes on both the reefs of Port Moresbt;;a-those of northeast New Grinea and Stylaster, whilepresent in the Huon Gulf , was not TG'Ga--for PortMoresby.In general, the infornration on scleractiniantaxa is insufficient to provide a true indicationof differences in coral reef diversity and coraltaxa betrdeen the two regions, and furthercollections are necessary to confirm the validityof the above dlfferences. Instead, the importanceof this study resides in the assurance it providesthat northeast New Guinea reefs are notdepauperate either in extent or taxa.CONCLUSION

The coral reefs of northeast Nei{ Guinea havenever been property surveyed. We suggest that theextent of these reefs has been grossly underestinrated. Rather than the one-sixth of itsentire coastline being bordered by corals(Whitehouse, \973), it appears that over one-halfof the coastline and surrounding islands arefronted by coral reefs. Royal Australian NavalHydrographic Charts issued as recently as 1975 forthe Huon G\rlf rtrater contain the caution 'tThischart is not based on adequate hydrographicsurveys in all areas and mariners are warned toproceed with caution because uncharted dangers nnyexist.rr These naps are prirnarily based on surveysurade just before the turn of the century andduring World War II and the necessity of betterhydrological cherts for Papua New Guinea isgenerally recognized (Done, 1983).Coral reefs from northeast New G:inea arearDng the rDSt diverse in the world with a highpercentage coral cover. The extent of these reefshas been underestirnated by scholars as recently as1973. For example, Whitehouse (1973, p.170)states that ItNew G:inea . . . Iis ] particularlyimportant in that while it offers some excellentopportunities for studying coral reefs in tropicalwaters, it is even nDre irportant for finding outwhy such reefs also nay not occur in seas thatseem ideally suited to them.rr Sinilarly Weber(1973) misinterpreted Stoddart (1972) and declaredthat reef developnent in northern New G:inea hadbeen inhibited in nany places by tectonicIIDve[ents.The prirary factor limiting coral reefdevelopnent in northeast Ne\,r GJinea is the depthof the water off-shore. Effectlve coral reeffrarebuilding occurs only in depths less than10-25 m which is the bathyuetric zone where coralgrowth rates are high enough to create reeffranework (Stoddart,1969; Done, 1982). Ihus,off-shore reef developrFnt is lirnited ln northeestNew Guinea by the great depths that generallyoccur within a kilonreter of shore resulting in alack of suitable shallow water substrate.T\:rbidity is a second limiting factor.However, despite a 3 m per annum rainfall, thecontinental shelf is too narrow to be an effectivesedinent resevoir. l'fuch of the terrigenous input

is apparently lost directly to the deep oceanbasins helping to naintain low levels of turbidityalong nost of the coast.With only srnall near river gapsr fiany lessthan 1 km, a large relatively continuous fringingand barrier reef exists from Cape Ward Hunt insouthern lbrobe Province to Condor Point, westernMadang Province, near the nouth of the lprge Ramrand Sepik Rivers (Fig.1). the diveisity andcontinuity of this reefal system is in [tt" orderof negnitude of the Great Barrier $eef. Inconsideration of the enormlty of thib reefalsystem we would like to suggest that it be knownas ilNew Guinea's Great Frlnging Reeftr.Whitehouse (1973) concluded his in{roductionwith rrso the great is land of New Quinea ispeculiar in having warm, coral- loving seas allaround it. But where are all the corals ?tl(p. I72). Along the northeast coast, we foundthen. This brings into question other qtatenentsby Whitehouse about the deficiency of redfs in theTrobriand, North Solonon and BismarckArchipelagoes. In the Iight of th9 presentresults, r{e are looking forward to new surveys ofthe reefs in those arees.Accurate estingtes of the coral reefs ofnortheast Ner,r Guinea are necessary for localresource assessrent and nenagenent. On the basisof Whitehousers paper lfunro (1975 ) nede sonEgeneraJ.ized estirrntes of the likely ektent ofcoral reef fish resources in Papua Ne$r Grineavraters. Proper estirnates of coral resources rrustbe based on the extent of the habitat itbelf. Asnortheast New Grinea is endowed with pxtensivereefs, m:ch greater potential productivity ispossible. The use of satell ite based rerDtesensing technology to rrap and ronitor shallowwater habitats in Papua Nevr Grinea has beendiscussed by Quinn et a1. (1985).ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance ofthe Papua New Grinea l.lniversity of Techlology intheir partial funding of thls research project(no. 369). Dr. M. Plchon, Departrrcnt of MarineBiology, James Cook University, kindly assistedwith the identification of sone of the llungiidaeand Poritidae. Itfu. S. Luxford and scientists fromthe University of Brussels Biological Stationkindly assisted our work in Hansa Bay. We thanklb. R. KelLey, Geology Departrent, Univerpity ofPapua New Grinea, and Dr. H. Molt, Rijksunseum vanNatuurlijke Historie, for their constructivecomrents and suggestions regarding the ranyscript.I'fu. S. Hugnen, DepartrFnt of Chernical Technology,PNG University of Teehnology, kindly assisted withthe Markham River sedinent analysis.REFERENCES

ANON. \982. Coral reefs . In: Ok TediEnvironrEntal Study: Port 6resby HarbourStudies, Townships and Regicnal Revie*. Vo1.7, pp. 13-82.CAHILL, M., H. HEATWOLE AND B. C,OLDMAN. 1973.Ecology of the Reefs. In: W. Manser (ed. ).New Grinea Barrier Reefsl- PreLiminary Resultsof the 1969 Coral Reef Expedition to theTrobriand Islands and Louisiade Archipelago,Papua New G:inea. University of Paprla New


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G\rinea, Geology Departrnnt, Occaslonal Paper,No.1., pp. 209- 229.CHAPPELL, l. fgZ:. Geology of coral terraces onHuon Peninsula, New Guinea. Ph.D. thesis.Augtralian Natlonal lhiverslty, Canberra,pp. 210.CHAPPELL, J. I974. Geology of coral terraces,Huon Peninsula, New Guinea: a study ofQuaternary tectonlc rDverlEnts and sea-levelchanges. Bull. geol. Soc. Arn. 85 :553-570.DAVIS, W.M. I922a. Coral reefe of the LouisiadeArchipelago. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., Proc.

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QUINN, N.J. and B.L. KOJIS. 1984. RerDte sensingof the Markharn River intrusion into the HuonGrlf, Papua New Grinea. Proc. 3rdAustralasian RenDte Sensing Conference, GoldCoast, Queensland, pp. 740-744.QUINN, N.J., P. DALZELL and B.L. KOJIS. 1985.LANDSAT as a managenEnt tool for rEPPingshallow water habitats in Papua New Grinea.Proceedings of the 5th International CoralReef Symposlurn, Tahiti.STODDART, D.R. 1969. Ecology and norphology ofrecent coral reefs. Blol. Rev. 44l-t+33-t+98.

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Australin Institute of Marine ScienceMonograph Series, Vol. 4., pp. 422.VERON, J.E.N. and M. PICHON. 1982. Scler-actinla of Eastern Australia. Part IV.Family Poritidae. Australlan Institute ofMarine Sclence I'trrnograph Series, Vol. 5.pp.159.VERON, J.E.N., M. PICHON and M. WIJSMAN-BEST.\977. Scleractinia of Eastern Australia, PartII. Australian Instltute of l"larine Sciencel,bnograph Series, Vol. 3. pp. 233.VERON, J.E.N. and C.C. WALLACE. 1984. Scler-actinia of Eastern Australia, Part V.

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Guineh. Australian National lJniversity Press,Canbefra, pp.195.MUNRo, J.i :-:g75. Potential Productivlty of CoralReef Fisheries. In: K.P. Lamb and J.L.Ctess]ttt (eds ). E-o.[ogy and Conservation inPapual New Grinea. Wau Ecology Instituteearnptllet No. 2, pp.90-97.QUINN, NlJ. and B.L. KOJIS. 1982. the hydrology ofthe Markham Rlver intrusion into the Huon Grlfusing! Landsat irnagery and in situobseivations. Science ln ttlew--ffiE9(3 ) i115-129.

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Documents

LIVING CORAL REEFS OF NORTHEAST NEW-GUINE BL Kojis NJ Quinn 1985