Algal and Seagrass Communities from Santo Island in Relation to Habitat Diversity

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Algal and Seagrass Communities from Santo Island in Relation to Habitat Diversity

The coral reef communities of Vanuatu have been little studied and nothing has been previously published on
the benthic algal flora from Espiritu Santo Island. Some marine algae from Vanuatu have been found in the British Museum collections (BM) and are mainly Sargassum species and Turbinaria ornata. In their report on Vanuatu’s marine resources, Done and Navin (1990) mentioned Halimeda opuntia as occurring in most of the sites  investigated and noted the high encrustation of coralline algae in exposed sites. More work has been done on  seagrass communities; earlier authors reported a total of nine species from Vanuatu including five species from Santo, i.e. Cymodocea rotundata, Halodule uninervis, H. pinifolia, Halophila ovalis and Thalassia hemprechii. The present algal flora and seagrass investigation of Santo was conducted during August 2006 as part of the "Santo 2006 expedition". This work is a companion study to that of the Solomons and Fiji and is intended to provide data for ongoing biogeographic work within the West and Central Pacific.  Extensive surveys have been carried out in most of the habitats recognized in the southern part of Santo Island and in the Luganville area, including islands, shorelines, reef flats, channels and deep outer reef slopes.