%0 Journal Article
%T New Records of Atypical Coral Reef Habitat in the Kimberley, Australia
%A Z. T. Richards
%A M. Bryce
%A C. Bryce
%J Journal of Marine Biology
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/363894
%X New surveys of the Kimberley Nearshore Bioregion are beginning to fill knowledge gaps about the region¡¯s marine biodiversity and the national and international conservation significance of this little-known tropical reef system. Here we report the recent finding of two unique coral habitats documented at Adele Island and Long Reef during the Woodside 2009/2010 Collection Project surveys. Firstly, we report the finding of a subtidal zone of mixed corallith and rhodolith habitat which appears on current records, to be unprecedented in Australia. Secondly, we report the discovery of an atypical Organ Pipe Coral habitat zone and provide empirical evidence that this commercially valuable species reaches an unparalleled level of benthic cover. We provide additional details about the wider hard and soft coral assemblages associated with these unique habitats; discuss the potential biological causes and consequences of them, and make recommendations to benefit their conservation. 1. Introduction Around the globe, most tropical reef locations have been the focus of at least some scientific studies. One of the last regions of shallow-water reef remaining to be explored is the Kimberley (north-west Australia). Renowned for huge tidal exchanges up to 11£¿m, frequent cyclones and crocodiles, this region has experienced little reef-based research apart from a series of biodiversity surveys conducted by the Western Australian Museum in the 1990s. Despite the growing public and industrial interest in this frontier region, the diversity of the tropical Kimberley reefs remains largely unknown, even at the coarse habitat level. Geomorphological surveys of reef development in Western Australia suggest that reefs in the Kimberley coastal bioregion are uniquely characterized by the development of Holocene accretionary veneers of coral-algal limestone (>12,000 years old) on a Proterozoic basement (2,500¨C543 million years old) [1]. Neighbouring reefs on the north-west shelf (i.e., within the Western Pilbara and West Coast Bioregions) have origins in the Pleistocene (25 million¨C12,000 years ago). Thus, contemporary reefs in the Kimberley appear to have more recent origins than others in Western Australia; however, the extent to which the difference in age translates to compositional differences between reefs remains to be resolved. Along the Kimberley continental edge, there is extensive development of oceanic reefs. The offshore reefs (such as Ashmore, Cartier, and Scott Reefs) have been extensively surveyed as part of National and Regional management plans [2¨C9] and contain a
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jmb/2013/363894/