A Taxonomy for Coral Reef Classification Components

Abstract

Coral reefs are organisms that mainly inhabit marine ecosystem. The formation of coral reefs are due to the symbiotic relationship between algae and coral animals and coral reefs have become an important element to the marine community. Coral reefs not only provides a shelter for coastal fishes and crustacean, but also protects and supply food to them. Reefs community are also useful to human that depends on marine products for their daily income. Other than that, coral reefs are one of the major attraction to tourist due to the various species of marine organisms that can be found there. The monitoring of coral reefs types, community size and health are important to ensure the ecosystem are continuous. Several attempts had been conducted to efficiently classify significant characteristics of coral reefs. The techniques used to monitor the coral reefs include on-site and remotely-sensed. All of the techniques developed have their own beneficial values and different methods are suitable for different purposes of study. This paper provides a taxonomy for coral reef classification components. The taxonomy covers the basics of coral reefs and techniques that have been used for coral reef monitoring that can be the basis for coral reef classification work in the future.