Evaluation of health trends of relocated corals in Chabahar Bay by Coral Watch and Line Intercept Transect method based on climatic parameters

In order to develop Shahid Beheshti port of Chabahar, about 20,000 coral colonies were moved from the port development plan to a new site located in the north of Shahid Kalantari port. A decade after the corals were transferred, it is essential to know their health in order to make future decisions in similar cases. In this study, while examining the trend of air temperature and water temperature of Chabahar Bay, by diving operations and using Line Intercept Transect and Coral Watch methods, the health status and coverage of corals was monitored monthly from 2011 to 2017. Climatic data required for this study were obtained from Chabahar Meteorological Station and the satellite database of ECMWF Center. The relationship between the variables was examined through Pearson correlation test and Man Kendall trend analysis and the capability of SPSS and Minitab software. According to the results, the health status and development of the mentioned corals has a decreasing trend to the extent that the percentage of live coral coverage has increased from 98% in 1390 to 71.5% in 1398. On the other hand, the color degree of the health index of branched corals with a score of 4.31 out of 6 was in the "good" condition and mass corals with a score of 3.59 points were in the "average" condition. Despite the negative correlation between temperature and health of corals and the existence of a significant upward trend in the parameter of air temperature, due to the insignificance of the upward trend of water temperature, it seems that other factors besides water temperature fluctuations in the downward trend of health of corals have been involved.