[Coral-List] Corals in extreme/marginal environment - Bangladesh

[tomascik at novuscom.net]

Hi everyone,

St. Martin’s Island (SMI) is a unique sedimentary island in the 
northeastern Bay of Bengal, located at the northern section of Coral 
Ecoregion ER024, see Corals of the World:

http://www.coralsoftheworld.org/coral_geographic/interactive_map/

To anyone interested in pursuing research on corals found in 
extreme/marginal environments, I would like to direct you to a recent 
coral guide published by the Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute 
for the corals of SMI:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373993708_Corals_of_St_Martin's_Island_Bangladesh_An_illustrative_guide

To my knowledge, corals found on SMI represent the northernmost extent 
of scleractinian corals in ER024, with a relatively species-rich coral 
assemblage. However, coral reef development in the waters of SMI has 
failed to materialize. SMI is located in an extreme and marginal coral 
environment as a result of its proximity to major river systems (e.g., 
Ganges-Brahmaputra River, Naf River), heavy freshwater runoff, high 
water turbidity, low salinities, frequent cyclonic storms, and major 
seismic events. For example during the last megathrust seismic event in 
1762, SMI was uplifted by about 2 m, see:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040195118302634?via%3Dihub

This is the first illustrative guide to coral species from the northern 
region of the coral ecoregion ER024. Thus far, very little field 
research has been conducted in this fascinating area. If anyone out 
there is interested in pursuing future research in extreme/marginal 
coral environments please let me know and I will do my best to assist 
you to link you up with coral researchers in Bangladesh.

Cheers,
Tom