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Xray Magazine A closer look at Biodiversity — At the Heart of the Coral Triangle Text and photos by Dr Richard Smith www.OceanRealmImages.com Coral reefs are places of immense natural diversity. They accommodate some of the highest densities of animals on earth and have more species than any other marine habitat. However, the species inhabit- ing coral reefs are not distributed evenly through the oceans. Richness differs dramatically between regions due to the many different pressures that have molded each community over mil- lions of years. The world’s highest marine biodiversity is found in an area that has become known by conservationists as the ‘Coral Triangle’. This region of mega-diversity is a roughly triangular area extending from central Indonesia to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and northwards to the Philippines. This rela- tively small area, on a global scale, boasts the world’s richest marine biodiver- sity. As you travel in any direction from there the number of species decreases. Pyjama cardinalfish The richest reefs are quite specific in I was lucky enough to conduct much of my PhD their habitat choice, research, on the biology and conservation of pygmy sea- preferring branching horses, at Wakatobi Dive Resort located at the heart of hard corals in calm shallow water A diver explores a rich coral reef 47 X-RAY MAG : 62 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO ecology Biodiversity Coral reefs are the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystem Seagrass meadows harbor a unique assemblage of marine life. A shot showing a diverse reef of sponges, halimeda Robust ghost pipefish are common in this habitat but hard to algae, hard and soft corals in the Tukangbesi archi- find due to their uncanny mimicry of dead seagrass fronds pelago the Coral Triangle. For more than overhang on the Wakatobi House and Indo-West Pacific. The bio- six months, over a three-year peri- Reef. I was constantly amazed diversity in these two areas, od, I dived the reefs and really got that, even after six months, I would however, is quite different: the chance to appreciate the amaz- still encounter something new species richness in the Indo-West ingly high biodiversity of this region. almost daily. One day I found a Pacific vastly surpasses that of the Due to the nature of my work, I tiny beige frogfish half the size of Caribbean. The Indo-West Pacific spent hundreds of hours in one my little finger nail, the next a nudi- supports at least 600 species of specific location on the reef and branch I had never seen before coral and 4,000 fish, compared to as a result got to know the area crawling across my path and the 62 and 1,400 species respectively like the back of my hand, and the following evening a bright orange in the Caribbean. The species local residents like family. shrimp crept from beneath a count for either fish or corals in one Over the years I had the oppor- sponge. Such is the Coral Triangle, Indonesian bay can exceed the tunity to appreciate the change, the world’s most biodiverse marine number of species found in the or lack thereof, on the reef. habitat. entire West Atlantic. In fact, for the Astoundingly over the three years, majority of reef organisms there there was almost no perceptible Today’s diversity are 10-30% as many species in the change in the size of sponges, Today, the two main areas of reef West Atlantic as Asia, and no reef- Rough-snout ghost pipefish are rare inhabitants of muck dive sites, whips and soft corals in my small diversity centre on the Caribbean associated fish species are shared preferring the protected sand or rubble slopes to coral reefs 48 X-RAY MAG : 62 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO ecology Biodiversity A small soft coral cowrie feeding on a Dendronephthya coral Pontoh’s pygmy seahorses attain a maximum length of less than 2cm between the two bodies of water. each contribute their own unique Fish doctors without borders Whilst the number of species in assemblage of organisms. Last year I had the opportunity the Caribbean appears low, they Whilst the true explanation is to join Wakatobi’s liveaboard, are in fact entirely different to probably a combination of these Pelagian on an itinerary that ven- those of the Pacific due to millions factors, the most simple and pal- tured beyond the resort’s reach of years of separation. atable reason for high diversity is and explored other islands in the There is some debate over the the huge diversity of habitat types chain. Whilst the resort has a pro- explanation for such high Asiatic in the Coral Triangle. The profu- fusion of different habitats includ- diversity. One theory is that the sion of different habitats equals a ing steep walls, pinnacles, ridges area is a hotbed for evolution- correspondingly high diversity of and bays, I had often heard ary change and species are cre- organisms to inhabit them: shel- about the muck dives found on ated here, with some eventually tered inner shore habitats have Buton island, close to the Sulawesi spreading to other regions of the their own set of species, whilst mainland. Muck dives are interest- Pacific. Another possibility is that exposed atolls have another. ing as they host a diverse set of the ranges of many species from Beneficially, the Coral Triangle has species you are unlikely to see in the Indian and Pacific Oceans also avoided the mass extinctions other habitats, due to their distinct overlap in the Asian archipelago, that have blighted other areas set of environmental conditions. causing higher diversity where over the millennia. Instead, the Ghost pipefish, seahorses, frogfish they coexist. In addition, the geol- Coral Triangle has been blessed and countless other oddities make ogy of the region has origins in with long periods of warm, stable this their home. It is a perfect many areas, each with their own conditions fostering the persis- example of the influence habi- fauna. The Australian and con- tence of species. tat diversity can have on overall tinental Asian land fragments species richness. The mangrove Nudibranchs reach their highest diversity in the Coral Triangle, Nembrotha lineolata 49 X-RAY MAG : 62 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO Xray_V_Revised_PATH.pdf 1 20/12/13 5:16 pm ecology Biodiversity C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Even the infamous Crown of Thorns seastar serves a A huge cuttlefish rests next to a huge gorgonian coral A rare crab found only on nocturnal feather stars role on a healthy coral reef. Only when humans dis- rupt the ecosystem do they reach plague proportions forests, shallow seagrass beds and even that these pygmies split off to become In 2007, when I was first at Wakatobi ocean, and reef communities can the open ocean are just a few of the a new, distinct species. conducting my pygmy seahorse obser- become isolated from others depend- other habitats that contribute their own vations, one of the guides found a tiny ing on local current systems. The East collection of unique species to the Endemism: riding the wave pipefish-like fish. It was distinct in several Australian Current, for example, flows Coral Triangle. As well as accommodating the highest ways: it’s miniature stature of less than from tropical equatorial waters towards During our tour of the Tukangbesi number of species in the Indo-Pacific, 3cm in length, strange swimming meth- the much cooler waters of southern archipelago, in which Wakatobi Resort South East Asia also has the greatest od resembling a sea dragon and red Australia and Tasmania. This effectively lies, I also came across, for only the number of endemic or indigenous spe- wisp-like filament on the head all indi- backs the reef organisms up against second time, a pair of Denise’s pygmy cies (species that occur nowhere else). cated to me this was something new. uninhabitable cold waters, isolating the seahorses living on a whip coral colony. Certain areas of the ocean are more Later that year the pygmy pipehorse, organisms from other populations and Unusual associations and biological prone to high levels of these restricted Kyonemichyths rumengani, was scien- fuelling their evolution into distinct spe- quirks such as this seem quite com- range species: Hawaii has 86 species of tifically described. Known initially only cies. monplace in the Coral Triangle. With endemic reef fish, the Red Sea 41, New from Sulawesi in Indonesia, this tiny fish Certain species are especially sus- the Coral Triangle as a production line Caledonia 43 and the Great Barrier is now also recorded from Halmahera ceptible to such conditions and form a for new species, it might be that these Reef 33. The Coral Triangle vastly out- and Raja Ampat and seemingly making higher than average proportion of the pygmy seahorses, or their offspring, are shines all these areas, with over ten per- it another Coral Triangle endemic. endemics. Those species whose juve- better adapted to life on a whip coral. cent of its almost two and a half thou- Currents play a major role in the nile forms spend long periods drifting in In many generations time it might be sand species found only there. movement of organisms around the the ocean as miniscule larvae tend not 50 X-RAY MAG : 62 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO ecology Biodiversity Crinoid clingfish (lefft) are a small species found in small groups at the centre of feather stars.
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