Latitudinal species diversity gradient of mushroom corals off eastern Australia: a baseline from the 1970s

Based on a study of mushroom coral species of eastern Australia, a decrease in species richness can be discerned from north to south. Eastern Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), is one of only few coral reef areas suitable for studies on large-scale latitudinal biodiversity patterns....

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Veröffentlicht in:Estuarine, coastal and shelf science Jg. 165; S. 190 - 198
1. Verfasser: Hoeksema, Bert W.
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2015
Schlagworte:
along-shore gradient
Australia
Barriers
Biodiversity
biogeography
Brackish
Collection
Corals
Fungiidae
Great Barrier Reef
historical data
Marine
Museums
Mushrooms
Reefs
Scleractinia
ISEW, Papua New Guinea, Papua Gulf
I, Indo-Pacific
PSE, Australia, Lord Howe I
ISEW, Australia, Queensland, Torres Strait
ISEW, Australia, Queensland
ISEW, Australia, Queensland, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
ISEW, Australia, Queensland, Great Barrier Reef
Fungiidae
historical data
biogeography
along-shore gradient
Great Barrier Reef
ISSN:0272-7714, 1096-0015
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Zusammenfassung:Based on a study of mushroom coral species of eastern Australia, a decrease in species richness can be discerned from north to south. Eastern Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), is one of only few coral reef areas suitable for studies on large-scale latitudinal biodiversity patterns. Such patterns may help to recognize biogeographic boundaries and factors regulating biodiversity. Owing to the eastern Australian long coastline, such studies are a logistic challenge unless reliable distribution data are already available, as in museum collections. A large coral collection predominantly sampled from this area in the 1970s is present in the Museum of Tropical Queensland (MTQ). The scleractinian family Fungiidae (mushroom corals), representing about 10% of Indo-Pacific reef coral species, was selected as proxy. It was represented by 1289 specimens belonging to 34 species with latitudinal ranges between 09°09′S and 31°28′S. The fauna of the northernmost reefs in the Gulf of Papua and the Torres Strait, and north of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), was represented by a maximum of 30 fungiids. From here a southward decline in species number was observed, down to Lord Howe Island with only one species. Together with previous records, the mushroom coral fauna of eastern Australia consists of 37 species, which is more diverse than hitherto known and similar to numbers found in the Coral Triangle. Future field surveys in the GBR should specifically target rarely known species, which are mainly small and found at depths >25 m. In the light of global climate change, they may also show whether previously recorded species are still present and whether their latitudinal ranges have shifted, using the 1970s records as a baseline. [Display omitted] •Species richness of Fungiidae in eastern Australia (n = 37) is higher than hitherto known.•A maximum coral diversity occurs in the northernmost part of the Great Barrier Reef.•Mushroom corals of eastern Australia show a southward decline in species richness.•Many unrecorded fungiid species are deep-living (>25 m) and small (<10 cm).•Museum reference collections can be used to establish baselines in historical ecology.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0272-7714
1096-0015
DOI:10.1016/j.ecss.2015.05.015