Contents INTRODUCTION Part 1. Reef-building corals of Vietnam as a part of the Indo-Pacific reef ecosystem Part 2. The problem of species for corals Part 3. Description of corals Order SCLERACTINIA 3.1. Family Thamnasteriidae Vaughan and Wells, 1943 3.2. Family Astrocoeniidae Koby, 1890 3.3. Family Pocilloporidae Gray, 1842 3.4. Acroporidae 3.4.1. Taxonomic history 3.4.2. Terminology and morphology 3.4.3. Family Acroporidae Verril, 1903 3.5. Faviidae and Fungiidae 3.5.1. Taxonomic history 3.5.2. Morphology, terminology and taxonomic peculiarities 3.5.3. Family Faviidae Gregory, 1900 3.5.4.Family Trachyphyllidae Verrill, 1901 3.5.5. Family Fungiidae Dana, 1846 3.6. Poritidae (by Dautova T.V. and LatypovYu.Ya.) 3.6.1. Taxonomic history 3.6.2. Terminology, morphological and taxonomic features 3.6.3. Family Poritidae Gray, 1842 (by. Latypov Yu.Ya., Dautova T.V.) 3.7. Dendrophylliidae 3.7.1. Taxonomic history 3.7.2. Terminology, morphological and taxonomic signs 3.7.3. Family Dendrophylliidae Gray, 1847 3.8. Family Agariciidae Gray, 1847 (by Latypov and Dautova) 3.9. Family Siderastreidae Vaughan and Wells, 1943 3.10. Family Oculinidae Gray, 1847 3.11. Family Pectiniidae Vaughan and Wells, 1943 3.12. Family Merulinidae Verrill, 1866 3.13. Family Mussidae Ortmann, 1890 3.14. Family Euphyllidae Mather, 1994 4. REFERENCES 5. GLOSSARY 2 FAR EAST BRANS RASSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENSCE INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY Yuri Ya. Latypov SCLERACTINIAN CORALS OF VIETNAM 3 PREFACE This monograph is the English translation of 5 books which originally appeared in Russian, and was published by Nauka in Moscow (Latypov, 1990, 1992, 1995, Latypov, Dautova, 1996, 1998), advanced and added with data on all Vietnamese reefs and corals distributed on them. They were translated into English by Elena Kogan and Yuri Latypov at 2006. The translation was supported by a grant from the International Society for Reef Studies. The translation into the Vietnamese was carried out by Dr. Pham Quoc Long. Laboratory and underwater photos of corals were made by the author. The described collection is kept in the A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology of the Far-Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences under №№ 9501, 1/9502-1/95297. Acknowledgements The author greatly appreciates the permanent attention and assistance of the management of the A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanography (Nha Trang) and Institute of Oceanology (Hai Phong) in the work. He is very grateful to his colleagues I.N. Budin, V.A. Brykov, B.Hoeksema, Lang Van Ken, N.I. Selin, Yu.M. Yakovlev, Nguen Van Tien, Fam Dinh Trang, C. Veron, V. Zlatarski and Nguen Hui Yet, for their help in reception of grants, in underwater investigations, collection and primary treatment of the material, as well as to N.A. Latyshev and S.V. Khotimchenko for determination of fatty acids content in the corals. He also thanks his sponsors who provided him with financial assistance in publishing the Russian version of this monograph. He also thanks the International Society for Reef Studies for funding the translation into English, the Russian translators at Elena Kogan, and Douglas Fenner for proofreading the English. INTRODUCTION The productivity of the coastal waters of Vietnam – the abundance of fish, shrimp, lobsters, mollusks and commercial algae – is considerably (if not mainly) determined by the state of the coral reefs. Nevertheless, corals of this region have been little studied until now. Past reports of Vietnamese corals have consisted mainly of species lists. They include lists of the South Vietnam corals – 230 species (Davydoff, 1952), corals of Gulf of Tonkin – 12 names, mainly genera (Gurianova, 1972), and lists in the reports of the Institute of Marine Research, including 227 species. There were many synonyms among the genera and species. The only attempt to analyze the distribution of Scleractinia was made for Nha Trang Bay by Loi (1967), who distinguished four typical facies for some island and cape reefs, and listed 78 scleractinian species. 4 One of the main goals set by the National Research Center of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam before the Institute of Marine Biology of the Far-Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the early 1980’s was the investigation of the coastal coral reefs of Vietnam for the purpose of their rational use and protection. The use and protection of reefs should be based on the knowledge of what should be used and in what amount and what should be protected. Coral reefs and rainforests are the most productive natural ecosystems, which are interesting and important for mankind in various ways. In addition to the fact that they are an especially important source of food for many people inhabiting tropical regions, their high primary productivity contributes to the overall oceanic reserves due to shallow water reef and near reef fish. Hormone-like prostaglandins, fatty acids derivatives, extracted from corals, have been widely used in various medical treatments (Colwell, 1983). For many thousands of years, reef ecosystems along the coastline and around numerous islands in Vietnam determined and continue to determine not only the material but also the spiritual culture of the Vietnamese people. All these make governmental and scientific organizations of many countries consider coral reefs as an especially important component of their economy. Scleractinian corals, being the main reef-builders and forming coral reefs, create shelter and provide food for many hundreds of plant and animal species. Because of all of the above-said, our main tasks are the inventory and monographic description of the scleractinian corals of Vietnam. Corals were studied in 12 areas of the Vietnamese coast from the northern Gulf of Tonkin to the western Gulf of Thailand on 56 islands and coastal reefs (Figs. 1, 2). At every island or reef we studied its morphology, zonation, species composition and distribution of Scleractinia from the lower horizon of the intertidal zone to 48 m depth. Percent coverage of corals, number of branched, massive, and encrusting colonies, and a qualitative collection of Scleractinia in every physiographic zone were taken at every section (a total of 83 sections). In general about 5000 scleractinian specimens were examined, and more than 800 underwater photos of corals in their habitat were taken. While identifying and systematizing corals we followed the principles of population taxonomy advocated by E. Mayr (1969), and also principles and methods of population systematics, qualitative and quantitative analysis of individual variability, elaborated and applied for corals (Veron and Pichon, 1976; Tesakov, 1978; Latypov, 1984). In particularly difficult identification cases we used a chemotaxonomic approach, comparing fatty acids content in species with weakly distinguishable morphological features. After isolation from the skeleton, soft tissues were extracted in ethanol (Bligh and Dyer, 1963), and then fatty acids were determined according to the method developed in the Institute of Marine Biology (Latyshev et al. 1986) using a Shimadzu 5GS gas chromatograph. The system of Scleractinia, developed by J. Wells (1955), and monographs by J. Veron and co-authors (Veron and Pichon, 1976; Veron et al. 1979; Veron and Wallace, 1984) 5 were used as the taxonomic basis of our study. The species range and distribution information from outside of Vietnam were used by J. Veron (1995). Part 1. REEF-BUILDING CORALS OF VIETNAM AS A PART OF THE INDO-PACIFIC REEF ECOSYSTEM The coastline of Vietnam is over 3200 km long and covers 15 degrees in latitude, from the Gulf of Siam in the south (8°N) to the Chinese border in the north (23°N). The nearshore water area (up to 50-m deep) of Vietnam, including some 3000 islands, is about 206000 km2 . Vietnam and its coastline are divided into 5 parts, the Gulf of Tonkin, Central and Southern Vietnam, Gulf of Siam, and Spratly Islands (Thanh, 1999). Reef-building corals and reef accumulations are confined to hard grounds, typical of the Vietnam coast. Between 16°and 19°N, the coastline is formed mostly by moving sand with a minor presence of hard substrates. The temperature varies between 18–32°C, and the salinity, 28–40‰. One hundred and fourteen rivers are registered along the coastline. The spread of the reef is limited near the mouths of two large rivers, the Red River in the north and the Mekong in the south, due to adverse conditions. The ecosystems of the coral reefs of Vietnam feature high bioproductivity, with a primary production of up to 30–100 mg C/m3 per day, which is almost 100 times that in open waters (Sorokin, 1986; An, 1994). Vietnam is situated in the tropics, affected by two sorts of monsoons: the wet southwest, lasting from May till September, and the dry northeast, occurring in October–April. Heavy rain showers during the wet monsoon period result in a huge (5–400 million m3) freshwater influx and a substantial (up to 200 thous. tons) terrigenous sediment influx into the sea. The daily suspended matter precipitation rate in the reef reaches 70–100 g/m2 and increases tenfold during typhoons (Dautova et al. 1999; Vo and Hodgson, 1997). This results in a remarkable decrease in water transparency, affecting, together with other factors, the development of coral settlement in this region. The reef-building corals and reefs of Vietnam attracted scientific attention as early as the first half of the twentieth century ( Sérene, 1937; Dawydoff, 1952). Loi (1967) was the first to analyze the zonation of reef-building corals in reefs of the Khanh Hoa province. He distinguished four scleractinian-dominated facies. These investigators determined the species composition of scleractinians and demonstrated its similarity to that of Australia and Indonesia.