Distribution and Diversity of Living Natural Resources from the Most Northern Red Sea Islands, Egypt: I- Hard and Soft Corals

The present study is a part of a monitoring program of the most important living natural resources, investigating the substrate cover distribution in the most northern islands of the Egyptian Red Sea. These resources include both hard and soft corals. This study was made during winter 2017 using Line Intercept Transact (LIT) to monitor the diversity and distribution of those resources. Eight islands located at the entrance of the Suez Gulf were surveyed using standard methods. Monitoring work for the hard and soft corals using transect was done by diving and snorkeling in the study areas. In the current study, the highest percentage cover of hard corals was 84 % recorded at Ghanim Island compared with the lowest cover of 41.3 %, estimated at Ashrafi Island, with mean percentage cover for all Islands averaged 60.1%. Acropora and Stylophora were the most abundant hard coral genera with a percentage cover of 35.8% and 17.6 %, respectively. Soft corals were the highest at Tawila Island with a percentage cover of 6% and the Nephthea was the highest soft coral genera with a percentage cove of 1.0 %. The monitoring work showed the diversity and distribution of these natural resources, especially coral reefs, and the extent to which these resources are affected by human activities, especially tourism activities, and also extraction and drilling for oil near the study areas. Observations on hard and soft corals in the study areas may be useful and important in the development of those areas in the future.