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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Mapping octocoral (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) research in Asia, with particular reference to the Indian subcontinent: trends, challenges, and opportunities Ghosh Ramvilas, Kannan Shalu, Rajeev Raghavan & Kuty Ranjeet 26 October 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 13 | Pages: 14691–14721 DOI: 10.11609/jot.4982.11.13.14691-14721 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. 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Partner Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2019 | 11(13): 14691–14721 Mapping octocoral (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) research in Asia, with particular reference to the Indian subcontinent: Communication trends, challenges, and opportunities ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Ghosh Ramvilas 1 , Kannan Shalu 2 , Rajeev Raghavan 3 & Kuty Ranjeet 4 PLATINUM 1,2 School of Ocean Science and Technology, 3 Department of Fisheries Resource Management, 4 Department of Aquatc OPEN ACCESS Environment Management, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, Kerala 682506, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] Abstract: Octocorallia (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) comprising over 3,600 nominal species within three orders, Alcyonacea, Helioporacea and Pennatulacea, is one of the most poorly known groups of marine invertebrates. Half of known octocoral species occur in the Indo- Pacifc, but not much is understood about research eforts and outputs in this region, partcularly in the Asian context. A review of the literature on Asian octocorals during a 40-year period from 1978 to 2018 revealed that most research was concentrated in partcular regions/countries. An analysis of research originatng from India indicated several issues, including low quality data and local taxonomic impediment. This paper examines the general trends and geographic disparity in Asian octocoral research over the past four decades, analyses the extent and source of such disparity by drawing parallels between India and the rest of Asia, and provides recommendatons for improving octocoral studies in the region. Keywords: India, Indian Ocean, marine invertebrates, sea fans, sof corals, taxonomy DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4982.11.13.14691-14721 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9518746B-0F46-4037-89C0-1D5830EA50C7 Editor: Phil Alderslade, CSIRO Marine And Atmospheric Research, Hobart, Australia. Date of publicaton: 26 October 2019 (online & print) Manuscript details: #4982 | Received 02 April 2019 | Final received 04 October 2019 | Finally accepted 19 October 2019 Citaton: Ramvilas, G., K. Shalu, R. Raghavan & K. Ranjeet (2019). Mapping octocoral (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) research in Asia, with partcular reference to the Indian subcontnent: trends, challenges, and opportunites. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(13): 14691–14721; htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4982.11.13.14691-14721 Copyright: © Ramvilas et al. 2019. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: The study was part of a Mohammed Bin Zayed Species Conservaton Fund project on Seafans of India funded to the frst author. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Ramvilas Ghosh is working on the taxonomic identty and subsequent evoluton of gorgonians of the central Indian Ocean region. His research interests include octocoral taxonomy, phylogeny and conservaton. Shalu Kannan is working on syngnathid fshes of India and her other interests include marine taxonomy, populaton genetcs and conservaton. Rajeev Raghavan is interested in interdisciplinary research that generates informaton to support conservaton decision making in tropical aquatc ecosystems partcularly in the Western Ghats Biodiversity Hotspot. His work cuts across multple disciplines from taxonomy to evolutonary biogeography, fsheries management and conservaton policies, and range from local to global scales. Kutty Ranjeet’s interest includes understanding ecological dynamics and impacts on aquatc environments with focus on estuarine and nearshore communites. He also has experience in crustacean aquaculture and its biotechnology. Author contributon: RG, RR and KR conceptualized and designed the work. RG and KS collected and analysed the data. RG, RR and KR wrote the manuscript. Acknowledgements: The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers and the subject editor for their critcal comments and suggestons that greatly improved the manuscript. 14691 Mapping octocoral research in Asia Ramvilas et al. INTRODUCTION the Indo-West Pacifc (which is included in Asia), are stll considered problematc when compared to the Ocean life has been explored for millennia, with Mediterranean and Atlantc waters (Bayer 2002). Aristotle’s work of the 3rd Century BC on European Based on this afrmaton, we undertook a systematc marine biota being one of the earliest (Coll et al. review of the published literature on diversity and 2010). Nevertheless, a large proporton of the world’s taxonomy of Asian octocorals (i.e., publicatons on marine biodiversity remains unknown (Mora et al. octocorals reported from Asia published by both Asian 2011). Knowledge of the extent and magnitude and non-Asians) during a 40-year period between 1978 of this biodiversity (partcularly lower microscopic and 2018, to beter understand the trends, status and forms) has been hindered by uneven sampling eforts regional inclinatons of such studies. For example, and a shortall in taxonomic expertse required for despite having high levels of marine diversity (Titensor documentaton (Wilson 2017). Octocorals (Cnidaria, et al. 2010) and two centuries of marine diversity Anthozoa), characterized by the presence of eight inventories, comprehensive data on octocorals in and tentacles surrounding the mouth of the polyp, comprise around the Indian subcontnent is extremely poor when a diverse group of marine organisms which includes blue compared to other groups of cnidaria (e.g., scleractnian corals, sof corals, sea fans and sea whips (gorgonians) corals and siphonophores; Venkataraman & Wafar and sea pens (Fabricius & Alderslade 2001). They are 2005). In this background, we: (i) examine the general conspicuous members of coral reefs, ofen forming the trends and geographic unevenness (if any) in Asian fronters (Steiner et al. 2018). They are also distributed octocoral research, (ii) analyze the extent and source of over a broad range of bathymetry ranging from intertdal such biases in the octocoral research arena by drawing to the deep waters, and in some regions octocorals rival parallels between India and the rest of Asia, and (iii) hard corals in biomass, abundance and diversity (Perez provide recommendatons for improving octocoral et al. 2016). diversity and taxonomic studies in the Indian region. Octocorallia currently comprises over 3,649 nominal species within three orders, Alcyonacea, Helioporacea, and Pennatulacea (Daly et al. 2007; WoRMS 2019). They METHODS are however, one of the most poorly known groups of marine invertebrates, whose taxonomy is in a fux as a Primary literature (concerning Asian octocorals) result of insufcient taxonomic expertse, high levels published during the period, 1978 to 2018 was of homoplasy and lack of distnct diagnostc characters extracted from Google Scholar™ using the following (except colony morphology and sclerite characteristcs) keywords: (octocorals OR Octocorallia OR Alcyonacea that makes identfcaton a complex afair (Perez et al. OR Helioporacea OR Gorgonacea OR Pennatulacea 2016). Further, missing/lost ‘type material’, inadequate OR Stolonifera OR Telestacea OR Gorgonarian OR species descriptons from the 19th and 20th century, Gorgoniden OR Alcyonarien OR Octcorallien OR and the likelihood of hundreds of undescribed species Penatulaceen OR ‘sof corals’ OR gorgonian OR ‘sea pen’ necessitate the reinforcement and acceleraton of OR ‘sea fan’ OR ‘sea whip’) AND (Asia OR Japan OR Israel octocoral research, especially extensive taxonomic OR Iran OR Indonesia OR Vietnam etc.)