Microorganismos asociados al coral pocillopora capitata en los arrecifes marginales Perpetuo Socorro y Ureles en Manabí, Ecuador.

Abstract

Coral reefs are an important ecosystem for the development of marine life due to the symbiosis they perform with other species, in addition to providing adequate shelter for other organisms. They are composed of large groups of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and microalgae. The different types of corals require long periods of time to be able to create large reef matrices, creating habitats for fish and other marine species. Marginal corals are a species of coral with great resilience capable of recovering from bleaching conditions in short periods of time, during the research carried out at the Perpetuo Socorro and Ureles sites by cultivating 24 samples of healthy and bleached coral for each of the sites with marine agar and potato dextrose agar. An ANOVA analysis was performed to determine if there were significant differences between the fixed variables site, month, agar type and coral status, resulting in significant differences in coral status, site and agar type in relation to the number of colonies, that is, there is a greater amount of bacteria in healthy corals and a greater amount of fungi in bleached coral, having a direct relationship between bacteria and fungi, likewise a correlation was found between the decrease in bacteria and the increase in fungi with respect to the condition of coral bleaching.