3.2. Photoquadrats
The photoquadrat data showed that the cover of calcareous sub-
strate (i.e. live and dead coral) varied greatly from 32.2% to 79.5%
among the eight sites (
Fig. 1
). There were substantial spatial differ-
ences in coral taxon composition. In particular, the massive coral
Platygyra
dominated coral communities at four of the five north-
eastern sites, which covered 64.6–79.9% of the total area of coral
substratum. At Wu Pai, the only northeastern site where
Platygyra
was not dominant, massive corals
Porites
and
Goniopora
co-dominated the coral community. In the three eastern sites,