Thesis (BS Biology) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, 2010

Coral reefs having numerous ecological, economic and aesthetic roles are essential for the marine ecocstem, However, various anthropogenic (e.g. blast fishing, other distructive fishing gears, anchor damage) as well as natural causes (i.e. biological and environmental factors) threaten the marine life. Marine protected areas (MPA)established for sustaining and conserving these critically important habitats and thus has been efficient on managing anthropogenic causes. However, biological causes such as attacks of a notorious coral predator Acanthaster planci, commonly known as Crown-of-Thorns have been frequently observed in the MPAs of Davao Gulf. This study aims to classify and determine the percentage coral cover of the different benthic lifeform in the three MPAs in Davao Gul. Moreover, determine the preferred benthic lifeforms attacked by A. planci. The assessmanet of the reef was done by photo quadrant method and visual census for COTs present in the areas. By percentage cover, the most dominant hard coral lifeforms in the ares surveyed were coral massive (CM) and mushroom corals (CMR). Accordingly, these dominant lifeforms were also the most attcked by the COTs discerned for their feeding scars. Furthermore, the data gathered only proves the voracoius feeding mechanism of COTs, wherein their feeding basically depends on the available food in the area. An important implication of the effects of COT populations in coral communities suggests that areas with high lifeform diversity will result to low vulnerability towards attacks of COTs due to abundance of food availabilty.