Discriminating spectral characteristics of hard coral species in tropical waters

All matter reflects, absorbs, penetrates and emits electromagnetic radiation in a unique way. The unique characteristics of a matter are called spectral characteristics. The aim of this study is to explore the spectral reflectance characteristics of various coral features, focusing on hard coral. There are many hard coral species found in tropical waters such as in Indonesia which have around 470 species. By identifying the spectral reflectance of hard coral species, it is expected that they can be used as references in discriminating hard coral species.

In the waters of Barrang Lompo island of Spermonde Archipelago, reflectance data was collected by using a hyperspectral radiometer to test the hypothesis that there is a difference in spectral reflectance characteristics of hard coral species (9 species) namely Acropora hyacinthus, Porites meyeri, Montipora sp., Acropora abrolhosensis, Acropora donei, Acropora formosa, Porites sp., Symphillia recta and Porites lobata. The result of variance analysis (ANOVA) of spectral reflectance amongst 9 hard coral species show that the value of spectral reflectance measurements in all wavelenght is significantly different from one species to the others. The clusters analysis defined high similarity in those coral. Discriminant analysis show that 471.73nm, 502.31nm, 562.92nm, and 676.76nm are able to clearly discriminate of hard coral.