Marine Biodiversity in the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of South America: Knowledge and Gaps
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Review Marine Biodiversity in the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of South America: Knowledge and Gaps Patricia Miloslavich1*, Eduardo Klein1, Juan M. Dı´az2, Cristia´n E. Herna´ndez3, Gregorio Bigatti4, Lucia Campos5, Felipe Artigas6, Julio Castillo1, Pablo E. Penchaszadeh7, Paula E. Neill8, Alvar Carranza9, Marı´a V. Retana4, Juan M. Dı´az de Astarloa10, Mirtha Lewis4, Pablo Yorio4,11, Marı´a L. Piriz4, Diego Rodrı´guez10, Yocie Yoneshigue-Valentin5, Luiz Gamboa12, Alberto Martı´n1 1 Universidad Simo´n Bolı´var, Departamento de Estudios Ambientales and Centro de Biodiversidad Marina, Caracas, Venezuela, 2 Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota´, Colombia, 3 Laboratorio de Diversidad Molecular y Filoinforma´tica, Departamento de Zoologı´a, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanogra´ficas, Universidad de Concepcio´n, Concepcio´n, Chile, 4 Centro Nacional Patago´nico, Patagonian National Center – National Research Council, Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina, 5 Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Departamento de Zoologia - Instituto de Biologia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 6 ULCO - Laboratoire d’Oce´anologie et Ge´osciences, Universite´ Lille Nord de France, CNRS UMR 8187 LOG, MREN, Wimereux, France, 7 Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 8 Universidad Cato´lica de la Santı´sima Concepcio´n, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Ecologı´a Costera, Concepcio´n, Chile, 9 Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Montevideo, Uruguay, 10 Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras, National Research Council, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Mar del Plata, Argentina, 11 Wildlife Conservation Society, Argentina, 12 Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The marine areas of South America (SA) include almost influenced by the physical and geological history of these coasts. 30,000 km of coastline and encompass three different oceanic The eastern tropical Pacific region, which encompasses the domains—the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Atlantic— continental coasts of southern Central America (Costa Rica and ranging in latitude from 12uNto55uS. The 10 countries that Panama) and of northwestern South America (Colombia and borderthesecoastshavedifferent research capabilities and Ecuador) is characterized by cliffs alternating with pocket beaches, taxonomic traditions that affect taxonomic knowledge. This alluvial and deltaic plains with extensive sandy beaches, well- paper analyzes the status of knowledgeofmarinebiodiversityin developed mangrove forests, estuaries, lagoons, and, reefs. It also five subregions along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South includes important offshore island systems such as the Pearl and America (SA): the Tropical East Pacific, the Humboldt Current, Galapagos islands [1,2]. The Peruvian coast also is diverse with the Patagonian Shelf, the Brazilian Shelves, and the Tropical bays, cliffs, kelp and macroalgal beds, rocky shores and sandy West Atlantic, and it provides a review of ecosystem threats and beaches, islands, and peninsulas, as well as wetlands, which include regional marine conservation strategies. South American marine the southernmost limit to the tropical Pacific mangrove ecosystem biodiversity is least well known in the tropical subregions (with [3,4]. The Chilean coast is 4,500 km of mainly rocky shores, but the exception of Costa Rica and Panama). Differences in total does include some sandy-beach bays with channels and archipel- biodiversity were observed between the Atlantic and Pacific agos toward the south (Patagonian region) [5,6]. Some of the most oceans at the same latitude. In the north of the continent, the diverse ecosystems in Chile are the beds of kelp (Lessonia and Tropical East Pacific is richer in species than the Tropical West Macrosystis) and macroalgae (Gracillaria and Ulva). The combination Atlantic, however, when standardized by coastal length, there is of the unique oceanographic conditions and coastal heterogeneity very little difference among them. In the south, the Humboldt in the Chilean coast has resulted in high levels of endemism (near Current system is much richer than the Patagonian Shelf. An 40%) in many invertebrate groups [5], and several marine analysis of endemism shows that 75% of the species are reported invertebrate taxa show latitudinal biodiversity patterns, some of within only one of the SA regions, while about 22% of the them explained by the presence of Antarctic fauna [7–9]. Ecuador, species of SA are not reported elsewhere in the world. National Peru, and Chile are under the influence of the Humboldt and regional initiatives focusing on new exploration, especially upwelling system and subject to high environmental variability to unknown areas and ecosystems, as well as collaboration caused by the ENSO (El Nin˜o Southern Oscillation) and LNSO among countries are fundamental to achieving the goal of (La Nin˜a Southern Oscillation), which cause important changes in completing inventories of species diversity and distribution. These inventories will allow accurate interpretation of the biogeography of its two oceanic coasts and latitudinal trends, Citation: Miloslavich P, Klein E, Dı´az JM, Herna´ndez CE, Bigatti G, et al. (2011) Marine and will also provide relevant information for science based Biodiversity in the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of South America: Knowledge and Gaps. PLoS ONE 6(1): e14631. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014631 policies. Editor: Simon Thrush, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), New Zealand Introduction Received July 16, 2010; Accepted January 4, 2011; Published January 31, 2011 The South American region Copyright: ß 2011 Miloslavich et al. This is an open-access article distributed The marine areas of the South American continent extend for under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the almost 30,000 km of coastline and encompass three different original author and source are credited. oceanic domains—the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Atlantic. Funding: A grant was received from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The funders The latitudinal and longitudinal ranges within this region are had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or similarly wide, from 12uNto55uS, and from 34u to 81uW. Ten preparation of the manuscript. countries border on these coasts, each with different research Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests capabilities and taxonomic traditions; therefore, taxonomic exist. knowledge differs among countries. Coastal biodiversity is strongly * E-mail: Patricia Miloslavich ([email protected]) PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 1 January 2011 | Volume 6 | Issue 1 | e14631 South American Marine Diversity community composition and abundance, particularly of the sduring the second half of the twentieth century which increased plankton [1,10]. the knowledge of marine biodiversity and strengthened the local The Atlantic coast of the South American continent is distinctly research capacities were carried out by the R/V Academik different from the Pacific coast. It includes three major rivers Knipovich (1967), the R/V Almirante Saldanha (1966), the R/V (Orinoco, Amazon, and La Plata), which discharge enormous Atlantis II, (1971), the R/V El Austral (1966–67), the R/V Vema amounts of freshwater and sediment to the ocean, and the coast (1962), and the R/V Walther Herwig (1966–71). At present, the has an extensive continental platform. Argentina’s coast has mostly oceanographic vessel Polarstern from the Alfred Wegener sandy beaches [6,11] and some rocky formations located mainly at Institute (Germany) has been carrying out exploration voyages Mar del Plata and at Peninsula Valdes. At Mar del Plata, these for more than 20 years to the southern regions of the continent rocky shores are dominated by two mussel species and by a diverse as well as Antarctica. macroalgal community with a clear tidal zonation [12,13]. The In the northern latitudes of the continent, the Tropical Uruguayan coast is dominated by sandy beaches with a narrow Eastern Pacific (TEP) Biogeographic Region has a rich history portion of rocky habitats known to sustain a rich biological of oceanographic and biological explorations dating back to the diversity [14]. Observed variations in community composition and voyage of Charles Darwin to the Galapagos aboard the HMS distribution may be related to the salinity gradient caused by La Beagle in 1835 and other scientific expeditions. However, none Plata River discharge [15]. of them visited the Pacific mainland shores and shelves of The coast of Brazil, extending almost 7,500 km, is under the Colombia and Ecuador. It was the Eastern Pacific Expedition of influence of the warm Brazil Current, the cold Malvinas/Falklands the U.S National Museum of Natural History in 1904 aboard Current, and many rivers and upwelling regions [16]. The warm the U.S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross that marked the northern coast, where the Amazon discharges into the ocean, is beginning of systematic oceanographic and biological studies in characterized by a combination of freshwater, estuarine, and this region. The Albatross sampledzooplanktonandother marine ecosystems, with diverse but poorly known habitats [17]. biological material in four shallow-water stations along the The colder southern coast is characterized by a variety of Colombian shore and nine deep-water