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Marine Environment and Background Information of the Study Site
Shao, Kwang-Tsao
Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica
The underwater video capture system was installed inside the intake bay of the
Third Nuclear Power Plant (NPP3) (21゜57'N; 120゜45' E) of Taiwan Power Company
(Taipower). The NPP3 is located on the western side of Nanwan Bay at the southern
tip of Taiwan (Figure 1) and it began to operate its first generator in 1984. Because
the bay is protected by a pocket-like dyke (Figure 2), fragile coral species such as
Acropora can grow very well and is less damaged by typhoons except for the strong
ones. For example, in 1984, a severe tropical storm Wynne hit Nanwan directly which
even caused a change of the coral reef fish assemblage afterward (Jan et al., 2001).
Figure 1. Map showing the Inlet of Nanwan Bay and the study site where the video
camera was installed. Inlet, site of the water intake constructed by the nuclear power
plant. Outlet, outlet of the water discharge canal.
Figure 2. Aerial view showing the inlet bay of the 3rd Nuclear Power Plant.
More importantly, the intake area is fully protected as a no-take area where
nobody can get in; only researchers can apply for permission to enter and dive on
weekdays. Thus, this small (about 30,000 m2 in area) and shallow (10-15 meters in
depth) bay has become the most effective MPA and coral reef fish paradise in Taiwan.
This is the other reason why we chose this safe place to install the real-time wireless
video camera monitoring system. In 2003, Taipower granted a joint research project
to National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium (NMMBA), Biodiversity Research
Center of Academia Sinica (BRCAS) and National Center for High-Performance
Computing (NCHC) to develop this underwater video monitoring and exhibition
system. All video image data were stored in NCHC and images were accessible online
via Internet broadcasting. Four real-time video frames taken from four camera heads
could be watched from computer or mobile devices (Jan et al., 2007) (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Underwater video capture system was settled in front of one coral patch.
Taipower also made a 3D film of “The Eden of Fishes” in 2014 to introduce the
effect of marine protected area and the film is now screening at both the Southern
Exhibition Hall of NPP3 at Houbihu and Northern Exhibition Hall of NPP3 at Wanli
simultaneously. A total number of 230 species of reef fishes have been recorded
after conducting the joint research project mentioned above. A guide book to
introduce these coral reef fishes inside the intake bay was also published (Shao et al.
2015). Due to the shelter provided by prosperous Acropora and the continuous
supply of zooplankton brought in by the cooling water, the fish assemblage here is
dominant by zooplankton feeders with large aggregations of Dascyllus spp. and
Chromis spp. (Figure 4). The feeding composition is rather different from other fish
assemblages at the outlet area and other places in Kenting National Park where
carnivores and omnivores are dominant.
Figure 4. Several species of damselfishes including Chromis viridis and Dascyllus
auranus hiding in the branches of Acropora coral.
Nanwan Bay is located in Taiwan’s first marine park, Kenting National Park, in
southern Taiwan. The Park was established in 1982 to protect the most beautiful
coral reef system in Taiwan. Kenting is located at the top of The Coral Triangle which
is the hot spot of marine biodiversity in the world. The total numbers of coral species
and reef fish species recorded so far have reached 300 and 1154 species, respectively
(Dai, 2011; Chen et al, 2010). The water temperature here is between 20-30℃, much
warmer than the water temperature in northern Taiwan (15-30℃). The difference
between northern and southern parts of Taiwan can reach 5℃ in the winter which
creates different marine species composition in the northern and southern fish
fauna. The reason for the temperature difference is that Taiwan is surrounded by
three ocean currents: Kuroshio along the southern and eastern coasts all year round,
South China Sea current on the western coast in summer and cold China coastal
current along the west in the winter. As a result, the isothermal line of sea water
temperature surrounding Taiwan is at oblique bisection, not horizontal like Tropic of
Cancer (Figure 5) (Shao et al., 1999).
Figure 5. Isothermal line of sea water temperature in winter season (A) and the three
ocean currents around Taiwan (B).
Additionally, Taiwan is located at the intersection of three Large Marine
Ecosystems (or Ecogeographic Region) of East China sea, South China Sea and
Philippine Sea which has the “ecotone” effect and brings different kinds of marine
life from the three Regions into Taiwanese waters. Furthermore, the topography,
substratum and water depth of Taiwanese territorial waters are quite diversified
which give rise to various marine habitats and ecosystems. Although the total length
of coastline in Taiwan is about 1100 km; 1600 km if the island of Penghu
(Pescadores), Hsiao-Liu-Chiu, Green Island and Orchid Island are included; not very
long compared to other marine countries, Taiwan has almost all the different kinds of
marine habitats. There are coral reef, soft bottom, hard bottom, estuary, mangrove,
sea grass bed, algal reef, sandy barrier lagoon, open ocean and deep sea, and even
cold seep and hydrothermal vent. The high habitat diversity creates high marine
biodiversity in Taiwan. According to the “Fish Database of Taiwan”
(Http://fishdb.sinica.edu.tw), Taiwan possesses more than 3,100 species of fishes,
about 1/10 of the world’s total, even though its total land area is only 36,000 km2
which is about 0.025% of the world’s total.
Owing to the large quantities of intake cooling water discharged from the
reactors, several physical parameters (e.g. water temperature, nearshore ocean
currents), chemical parameters (e.g. chlorine, radionuclide, trace elements), marine
organisms (e.g. phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic invertebrates, corals and fishes)
and fishery resources in the waters around NPP3 were monitored during the plant’s
operation period. The National Science Committee on Problems of the Environment,
Academia Sinica (SCOPE/AS) started this long-term project in 1979 (Su et al., 1989).
Hung et al. (1998) summarized that the operator of the two units of NPP3 had not
produced detectable effects on the marine ecosystem except the events of coral
bleaching caused by the thermal discharge along the outlets of NPP3. Coral bleaching
was serious in 1998 and 2007 when El Niño and La Niña affected Central Western
Pacific. However, in 2007, Taiwan’s coral bleaching was not as serious compared to
other neighborhood countries since there was an upwelling of cold water intruding
into Nanwan Bay from outside (Lee et al., 1997). Also, the typhoons passing by
southern Taiwan occasionally in the summer season can cause air and water
temperature to go down and give corals a break (Fan T.Y., pers. comm.). Recent study
on the pocilloporid corals from regions characterized by unstable temperatures, such
as those exposed to periodic upwelling, display a remarkable degree of phenotypic
plasticity (Mayfield, et al., 2013). On the contrary, the cold water intrusion which
suddently lowers water temperature by up to 7-10℃ can kill some fishes if they
cannot escape. Events like this happened in November 1989 and July 2008, and were
reported in the newspaper.
On top of water temperature changes at Kenting, anthropogenic factors also
affect marine ecological environment after the National Park was established and
started to attract tourists. The negative impacts come from farmland or habitat
destruction along the Kenting coast and slope land to accommodate constructions
such as hotels, restaurants and recreational facilities. These developments in turn led
to an increase of raw sewage discharges as well as heavy sediments and suspension
particles discharged directly into Nanwan Bay after rainfall. Overfishing, including on
coral reef fishes, to satisfy seafood consumption of tourists is another serious
problem. Both the 1st marine long-term ecological research project supported by
National Science Council during 2001-2005 and a human impact monitoring project
granted by National Park Authority since 2001 demonstrated this impact. The
monthly nitrogen loading can be explained by the rainfall and numbers of tourists
(Meng et al., 2008). Enriched water not only could cause seaweed to outgrow corals,
but it could also trigger sea anemone outbreak; and this is exactly what happened
during 2008-2010 in Kenting areas. Liu et al. (2009), using ECOPATH/ECOSIM, found
that the interaction between overfishing and eutrophication was the main reason
why the coral ecosystem degraded in the past 10 years.
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