IPB Prepares Taxonomy of Indonesian Coral Reef

Coral reef is an important biota for the world. Almost all types of coral reef can live and be found in Indonesian waters. Therefore, the Department of Marine Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, Bogor Agricultural University (Dept.ITK – FPIK-IPB ) through the Scientific Submarine Laboratory  of Marine Hydrobiology Division in collaboration with the Coral Identification Capacity Building Program (CICBP), Fisheries Diving Club (FDC)of IPB and Student Association of Marine Science and Technology (HIMITEKA)of IPB are conducting  a Coral Identification Training with the Coral Finder method .

 

The event was held twice; namely, in September in the Marine Bioprospection Laboratory, Dept. ITK – IPB and in November 2013 in the Secretariat of FDC FPIK with the number of participants, respectively five and seven people. In general, the participants are students of Dept. ITK – IPB – FPIK and one international student from Ehime University of Japan.

 

Not much coral taxonomy is available in Indonesia as a direct identification of sea corals is very difficult even to genus level. "Coral Finder method is one of the latest methods to help with identifying corals to the genus level. This method is used directly under water while diving so as to improve the accuracy of data collection,” said the training instructor, Beginer Subhan. The result of this training was the participants’ improved identification capability; even some have reached 90 percent.

 

Sotaro Sakamoto, Ehime University student of Japan said, this training is very helpful for his research on coral reef that will be done in the Thousand Islands. "It really helps with my research because coral reef in Japan is somewhat different," said Sotaro. (Dept.ITK )