Several months ago a deep reef from French Polynesia made the news as something completely new because we didn’t know about the existence of these deeper reefs. Nevertheless it’s a good thing that corals are in the news, and people start to show more interest in them.
上个月,在北苏拉威西礁调查中,我们很幸运地调查了这样的礁石,而这些水下世界奇观的程度确实令人震惊。即使几乎没有形状主导着这些栖息地,在珊瑚三角中间的物种的多样性也确实令人赞叹。
一个非常独特的栖息地
The dive sites we found were truly mesmerizing. Located in a sheltered, turbid large bay, it was an infinite expanse of rolling hills, dominated by thin foliate corals and speckled with truly unique ‘cherry’ species such asNemenzophyllia turbidain the middle. The 75 minutes of Diving bliss we enjoyed on this particular spot was way too short, and can’t wait to go back there.
浅部分:
When we descended upon that reef, the first thing we encountered while going down below the very shallow rubble field, is a dense thick forest ofAcroporateres,,,,Acroporaabrolhosensis,,,,Acroporahorrida,,,,Acropora Acquicita,,,,Acroporahalmaherae…我们已经知道,这将是一个很好的潜水!
The deeper foliate part:
一旦我们经过15 m(45 ft)标记,茂密的Acropora森林将被深水珊瑚所取代,以叶状物种(例如Pachyseris Speciosaas far as we eyes can see.
Pachyseris Speciosa是主要物种,根据玫瑰尺寸和形状略有不同的深度增长。随着我们的跌倒,变得更宽,更扁平和间隔。
但Pachyseris Speciosais not the only foliate species. A full spectrum of other species produce huge laminar colonies competing with each other.Mycedium robokaki是其中之一。
其他种类的叶状的物种,包括Oxypora lacera,,,,Echinopora lamellosaandEchinopora pacificusbut unlike French Polynesia deep reefs,porites rusis nowhere to be seen since it is unable to compete with the many other species more adapted to this environment. But some smaller colonies of laminar蒙蒂波拉存在。
还有一些有趣的杂技:
像往常一样,Acropora始终是我们注意的中心,尤其是在更深层次的地区。我们很惊讶地满足了一些很大的领域Acropora Carduus,,,,Acropora echinata,,,,andAcropora Navini。They were very discrete, positioned next to this large roses, and it took time and close up observation, to notice it wasn’t rubble fields, but perfectly healthy Acropora beds. They were often in the transition zone between the thick branching Acropora forest and the laminar coral fields.
斑点的珊瑚樱桃:
Among the laminar corals, we were greeted with some truly amazing and rare corals, such asNemenzophyllia turbidain the deeper part, 30 m (90ft).
这种非常罕见且真正被低估的珊瑚是水下美丽的景象。扁平的气泡确实是该物种的独特功能。殖民地很大,很容易宽2 m。我们没有时间真正花一些时间来尝试观察相关的动物群,我们还有另一个理由回到那里!
我们发现的另一个非常有趣的发现是一个巨大的殖民地Euphyllia glabrescens。不是很常见的珊瑚,而是很难在下降尺寸上找到。看起来像在浅水中,分支结构变得薄弱,它们永远不会达到大尺寸。虽然在更深的水中,即使殖民地并不是真正同质的,但它的规模仍然令人印象深刻。不同的息肉属于相同的菌落,从底物中伸出。
一个非常亲密的亲戚在30m(90英尺)时出现:纤维状腹膜。
还存在另一个常见的LPS珊瑚的大菌落:Goniopora sp
即使是一些柔软的珊瑚(Sarcophyton SP),也很少,很少有Sinularia……整个珊瑚家族都在这个礁石中努力。
大量的食物来奋斗礁石!
After waking up from this daydream, the only question coming to our mind is how is it possible? And the only answer is food! North Sulawesi lays at the entrance of the Indonesian ‘flow through’, where the Pacific empties itself into the Indian Ocean, getting through the Indonesian archipelago and this bay is right at the entrance of it. This reef within the bay is where the back eddy is created and where the food is dropped on the reef, directly within the mouths of these hungry corals!