Relationship between coral fish community structure and coral cover in Paiton Waters, Probolinggo-East Java, Indonesia

Paiton power plant’s waters area in Probolinggo has a natural coral reef ecosystem and a moderate diversity. The purpose of this research was to investigate the correlation between the physicalchemical parameters of water with coral cover and community (abundance and diversity) of coral reef fish. The monitored parameters were temperature, brightness, salinity, degree of acidity (pH), dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate and phosphate with coral sampling transects and coral reef fish, namely monitoring 3 transects. In identifying coral lifeforms, the line intercept transect (LIT) method was used, while the underwater visual census (UVC) method was used to identify reef fish. The results of measurement of temperature parameters at three stations showed 30 to 31°C, the brightness ranged between 3.5-5.7 m, salinity ranged from 30 to 31‰, the value of acidity (pH) ranged between 7–7.3, the dissolved oxygen levels were 5.7–6.4 mg L -1 , water nitrate level was 0–0.103 mg L-1 , and the phosphate level was 0.011– 0.25 mg L -1 . The coral cover of Paiton, Probolinggo is categorized as being in good condition. The condition of coral reef fish community in Paiton, Probolinggo is middle to high diversity. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed a positive correlation between most of the physico-chemical parameters of Paiton waters (brightness, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrate) with coral cover and negative correlation was evidenced for temperature and phosphate concentration.