Colony surface relief index

ID: 229

Class: Morphological

Description:

The "hummockyness" of massive or dome shaped corals. Surface relief is measured using a length of chain with 1 cm links. The chain, which was 50 cm long, was laid in a straight line in continuous contact with the coral surface along three lines paral- lel to the reef edge and along three lines perpendicular to the reef edge. The planimetric distance covered by the chain when it followed the relief of the coral was measured in each case and a value of relief index (the ratio of chain length/planimetriclength) was an average of the six readings.

Standards:

Methodologies: None entered

Editor: Andrew Baird (contact)

Observations

Porites lutea