Tropical reefs are of great ecological importance because they are biodiversity hubs (Gatwaza and Wang, 2021) hosting a variety of microorganisms, macroalgae, fauna (e.g., corals, sponges, reef fishes), and their interactions (Hughes et al., 2017). These seascapes act as nursery and feeding habitats for biomass maintenance in fisheries (McClanahan, 2020). In addition, they are also economically important because they contribute to tourism, human recreation, shoreline protection, and dissipating wave energy (Elliff and Kikuchi, 2017;Previero and Gasalla, 2018). However, owing to intense local, regional, and global human