Effects Of Salinity And Nitrate On Coral Health Levels: A Case Study Of Hump Coral (Porites Sp.)

This research focused on the effect of salinity and nitrate on coral health levels in hump coral (Porites sp.). The corals incubated under salinity vary in 15, 20, 25, and 30 psu, and nitrate vary in 5, 20, 60, and 100 mu g-N/l with triplicate experiments. The experimental results showed that the range of salinity in 20, 25 and 30 psu at 120 hours was unable to calculate LC50 (Lethal Concentration) because of insufficient in motility percentage. However, the results showed that 15 psu of salinity at 120 hours was able to calculate LC50 using Probit analysis. LC50 in 15 psu of salinity at 120 hours was equally to 105.40 mu g-N/l. The loss of Zooxanthellae from coral tissues could observe by the change in color as coral slowly turning into paling color but there were no releasing mucus and tissue damage as tissue sloughed-off observed in any treatments in this study because of the highly tolerant to reduced salinity and high nitrate in Porites sp. The experimental results showed that the corals incubated under separately high nitrate or reduced salinity treatment indicated an increased amount of loss of Zooxanthellae. Then, the combination of salinity and nitrate exposure in coral can create more stressful conditions and adversely affect coral health status than exposure to salinity or nitrate alone.Disciplinary: Environmental Science and Engineering, Marine Sciences. (C) 2020 INT TRANS J ENG MANAG SCI TECH.