As with all CORAL REEF systems, the ecology of Ningaloo REEF is closely linked to water circulation which transport and disperse key material such as nutrients and larvae. Circulation on CORAL REEFs may be driven by a number of forcing mechanisms including waves, tides, wind, and buoyancy effects. Surface waves interacting with REEFs have long been known to dominate the currents on many CORAL REEFs. This forcing is provided by wave breaking on the foreREEF that causes a local increase in the mean sea level (the “setup”) that is responsible for driving the cross-REEF flow. For this project, we are developing a coupled wave-circulation numerical model of Ningaloo Marine Park-located in northeast of Australia, using an extensive field data set collected from April-May 2006 in an ~5 km region around Sandy Bay, to validate its performance. The analysis of field data collected on the foreREEF, REEF flat and in the channel revealed a strong correlation between the incident wave height and currents inside the REEF lagoon and channel. A nearshore numerical wave model (SWAN) which simulates wave transformation due to the effects of shoaling, refraction, diffraction, and dissipation by both bottom friction and wave breaking was chosen to simulate waves across the system. The model uses a finely-resolved computational grid (~20 m resolution on the REEF) and incorporates high resolution bathymetric data provided from hyperspectral imagery. The model is forced with offshore wave conditions measured during the 2006 field campaign and model output is compared with an array of wave gauges deployed along cross-REEF transects from the foreREEF slope to the lagoon. Following successful validation, results from SWAN, particularly the 2D radiation stress gradients, are used by the circulation model to include the wave-driven circulation.

Benthic foraminifera are important in sediment production of CORAL REEF environments and are excellent indicators of water quality and REEF health. There is a lack of precise information about the foraminifer’ s fauna of the CORAL REEFs in the Persian Gulf. In this study, sediment sampling was performed in June 2019 from two CORAL stations of Naz Island and Zeytoon Park. The surface sediment with three replicates for each location was collected using a mini corer and then were fixed in 70% ethanol. In this study, thirty species belong to 23 genera and 19 families of foraminifer's assemblages were identified based on morphological characters. Our results indicated that Foraminiferal assemblages were similar in both sampling localities. Quinqueloculina was the most abundant genera for both Naz Island and Zeytoon Park. Foraminifer's frequency of Zeytoon Park was higher than Naz Island. Symbiont-bearing foraminifera (e. g. Peneroplis) were observed just in Zeytoon Park. Higher frequency and the presence of symbiont-bearing foraminifera possibly indicate that Zeytoon Park has a more favorable condition for the CORAL REEF growth in the future. Finally, we recommend that the structure of the foraminifer’ s community could be used as an early warning system for water quality around CORAL REEFs and in particular, would help resource managers make better decisions about protecting CORAL habitats.

The present investigation was carried in CORAL REEF areas of Palk Bay, Madapam. Palk Bay CORALs were found disturbed by human beings due to oil pollution, waste discharge from processing units and discharge of domestic household wastes from the nearby Mandapam town. Environmental conditions of the CORAL REEF habitat in the Palk Bay, Mandapam was analyzed for a period of six months at fortnightly intervals for March to August 2001 on the CORAL REEF areas. Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) were analyzed at five different stations of Palk Bay, Madapam. The maximum mean values of temperature, pH, DO, BOD and TOC for the four experimental and control stations were 32.6oC, 8.7, 7.02 ppm, 8.29 ppm and 2.13% and 31.5oC, 8.3, 7.98 ppm, 5.71 ppm and 0.48% respectively. The sampling stations were selected on the basis of their importance.