300229 VO Maledivische Korallenriffe (2008W)

The reefs of the Maldives have one of the highest diversities in scleractinia and coral reef fish world wide. After the massive coral bleaching in 1998 the dynamic reef development includes recruitment, regeneration, competition, erosion and local bleaching events. The lecturer is head of a small marine biological station in the Maldives. He spends there six months a year and is documenting the reef development since nine years. Therefore a large collection of actual underwater pictures and monitoring results are available.

Contents
A) Maldives general
-Theories of Atoll formation
-35 years of tourism: positive and negative environmental impacts
-Tsunami 26.12.2004: effects in the Maldives
-Climate change and rising seawater level: scenarios and strategies

B) Coral bleaching 1998
-Reasons, process, results
-Reef succession after 1998: Regeneration, recruitment, species composition, substrate, competition, bio corrosion, erosion

C) Reef biodiversity
-Corallinacea to sea turtles: diversity, habitats and biology of characteristic reef organisms

-Corallinacea
-Porifera
-Helioporida, Alcyonaria, Gorgonaria
-Scleractinia, Actiniaria, Zoantharia, Antipatharia
-Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Cephalopoda
-Polychaeta
-Crustacea
-Crinoidea, Asteroidea, Echinoidea, Holothuroidea
-Ascidiacea
-Chondrichthyes
-Osteichthyes
-Chelonidea