Page 33 - IPCoSME 2021

1 INTERNATIONAL POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE AND MARINE ENVIRONMENT 2021
st
(IPCoSME 2021)
“Environmental Sustainability Enhancement Through the Collaboration of Sciences”

RD-01

PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE OF Pocillopora acuta AND Porites lutea UNDER
PLASTIC AND FISHING NET STRESS

1,2
1,2
1,2
LONG YING , SUTINEE SINUTOK , PATHOMPONG PRAMNEECHOTE ,
PATTARA AIYARAK , PETER J RALPH AND PONLACHART CHOTIKARN 1,2,5 *
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3

1 Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, 90110,
Thailand
2 Coastal Oceanography and Climate Change Research Center, Prince of Songkla University,
Hat Yai, 90110, Thailand
3 School of Computational Science, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai,
90110, Thailand
4 Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, New South Wales, 2007, Ultimo,
Australia
5 Marine and Coastal Resources Institute, Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of
Songkla University, Hat Yai, 90110, Thailand

*Corresponding author email: ponlachart.c@psu.ac.th

Abstract: Marine debris has become a global problem affect coral health around the globe.

However, the photophysiological responses of corals to marine debris stress is still not clear.
Therefore, photosynthetic performance, pigment content, symbiont density, and of a branching

coral Pocillopora acuta and a massive coral Porites lutea were investigated after four weeks

of exposure to marine debris. The results show that the maximum quantum yield of PSII
significantly decreased in P. lutea with all treatments whilst, P. acuta showed no effect on the

maximum quantum yield of PSII in all treatments. Transparent plastic bag shading does not
affect P. acuta, but significantly affected the maximum photochemical efficiency of P. lutea.

Photoacclimation of cellular pigment content was also observed under opaque plastic bag
shading for both species at week 2. Fishing nets had the strongest effect and resulted in P. acuta

bleaching and P. lutea partial mortality as well as a decline in zooxanthellae density. This study

suggests that the sensitivities of corals to marine debris differ by species and morphology of
the coral.

Keywords: corals, marine debris, photoacclimation, zooxanthellae

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