IDENTIFIKASI MORFOLOGI DAN ANALISIS MORFOMETRIK LIMA SPESIES ACROPORA SPP. YANG JARANG DITEMUKAN DI INDONESIA = Morphological Identification and Morphometric Analysis of Five Species of Acropora Spp. Which are Ralery Found in Indonesia

ABSTRACT A.NURLELA. Morphological Identification and Morphometric Analysis of Five Species of Acropora Spp. Which are Ralery Found in Indonesia. (Supervised by Syafyudin Yusuf). Background. Corals of the Genus Acropora have the most species in modern coral reefs, estimated to be around that about 25 percent of coral species including Acropora are yet to be discovered and named in Indonesia. The search for these species is thought to be quite difficult and because of their complex structure, Acropora is still difficult to identify. Morphology-based analysis on the identification of skeletal differences is the key to species differentiation. objective, this research aims to determine the distribution, habitat and status of coral specimens, identify, determine the morphometrics of rare Acropora coral species found in Indonesia. Methods, research begin with mapping the location of coral specimen findings, identification and describing specimens to species determination, digitally photographing and measuring the morphometrics of the coral skeleton. Morphometric measurements include axial corallites diameter, radial corallites, radial shape, conoesteum shape and branch diameter. Results the research indentified five Acropora spesies from various location in Indonesia namely Acropora simplex, A.russelli, A. turaki, A. efflorescens and A. elegans. The morphometric measuremeants of the five Acropora spesies show similarities and diffrences compared with the results of Wallace (1999) and Veron (2000) reseach. Conclusion, this research has found five Acroora spesies with morpological and morphometric similarities and differences compared to previous research, thus providing new data that has not been revealed before by Wallace (1999).

Keyword: Morphology, Morphometrics, Acropora spp, Newly Discovered Location (New Record).