Table 4. Summary of GLMM/GLM selection for coral genera distribution with geographic factors. The best goodness-of-fit models were selected from lowest Akaike Information Criterion correction(AICc) among all the geographic factors combination (Site(nested in Sector), Zone and Sector). Akaike weight indicates the likelihood of given model as best goodness-of-fit model. Total coral cover of each genus showed the contribution of each genus in Penghu coral reefs. #indicates the best model also has factor “sector” but with same AICc and Akaike weight.

Genera	Model structure	AICc	Akaike weight	(%) of total coral cover
Acanthastrea	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)#	365.11	0.385	0.88
Acropora	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	1611.93	0.500	56.37
Coscinaraea	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	62.26	0.476	0.03
Cyphastrea	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone	411.74	0.489	0.79
Echinophyllia	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	348.01	0.303	0.78
Echinopora	Coral cover ~Site(Sector) #	571.71	0.386	4.98
Euphyllia	Coral cover ~NULL	143.65	1.000	0.28
Dipsastraea	Coral cover ~Site(Sector) #	448.43	0.382	0.88
Favites	Coral cover ~Site(Sector) #	667.95	0.386	2.19
Galaxea	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	316.23	0.312	0.49
Goniastrea	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	583.93	0.296	1.48
Goniopora	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	320.98	0.500	2.79
Hydnophora	Coral cover ~Sector	196.60	0.397	0.43
Lithophyllon	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	240.09	0.477	0.68
Phymastrea	Coral cover ~Zone	109.73	0.698	0.13
Montipora	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	1078.83	0.256	13.50
Mycedium	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	293.50	0.500	0.69
Pavona	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	415.80	0.415	0.95
Platygyra	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	466.93	0.268	0.97
Pocillopora	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)#	789.90	0.387	2.71
Porites	Coral cover ~Zone	799.42	0.365	3.47
Psammocora	Coral cover ~Zone	70.08	0.716	0.89
Stylocoeniella	Coral cover ~NULL	44.61	0.998	0.02
Stylophora	Coral cover ~Sector	246.48	0.462	0.86
Turbinaria	Coral cover ~Site(Sector)+Zone#	55.99	0.499	3.53