@article {Adjeroud:1996-07-01T00:00:00:0007-4977:175, author =
"Adjeroud, Mehdi and Salvat, Bernard", title = "Spatial Patterns
in Biodiversity of a Fringing Reef Community Along Opunohu Bay,
Moorea, French Polynesia", journal = "Bulletin of Marine
Science", volume = "59", number = "1", year =
"1996-07-01T00:00:00", abstract = "Opunohu Bay, located on the
North coast of Moorea Island (Society Archipelago), is
approximately 3 km long and partially edged by a small fringing
reef no wider than 100 m. The main objective of this first
quantitative survey concerning bays in French Polynesia, was to
examine the spatial pattern of diversity of the macro-benthic
fringing reef community between the land-end and the ocean-end
of the bay. This study considered the conspicuous benthic
organisms (Cnidaria, Echinodermata, Mollusca, Porifera and
seaweeds) more than 1 cm long and attached to the substratum. A
strong gradient in percent cover and species richness was found
for corals and echinoderms, between the land-end where