Short Communication The Coral Triangle Initiative: what are we missing? A case study from Aceh E DI R UDI,STUART J. CAMPBELL,ANDREW S. HOEY,NUR F ADLI,MATTHEW L INKIE and A NDREW H. BAIRD Abstract The Coral Triangle Initiative is an ambitious he terrestrial fauna and flora of South-East Asia has attempt to conserve the marine biodiversity hotspot known Tbeen a source of inspiration for biogeography since the as the Coral Triangle. However, the reef fauna in many field was founded following Alfred Russell Wallace’s voyage nearby regions remains poorly explored and, consequently, through the Malay Archipelago in the 19th century the focus on the Coral Triangle risks overlooking other areas (Wallace, 1869). Many marine organisms, including corals of high conservation significance. One region of potential and reef fish, also have their global centre of diversity in significance, Aceh, Indonesia, has not been visited by coral South-East Asia (Veron, 1995; Roberts et al., 2002). More taxonomists since the Dutch colonial period. Here we recent compilations of the global scleractinian and reef fish document the species richness of scleractinian corals of fauna have revealed a hotspot within South-East Asia now Pulau Weh, Aceh. We also compare the species richness of called the Coral Triangle (Allen, 2008; Veron et al., 2009), the genus Acropora at 3–5 sites in each of nine regions in bounded by the Philippines to the north, the Solomon Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Although dominated by Islands to the east and Bali to the west (Fig. 1). Veron et al. widespread Indo-Pacific species, the coral fauna of Pulau (2009) further divided the Coral Triangle into 16 ecoregions, Weh is also the eastern and western boundary for many each with . 500 scleractinian species. The Coral Triangle Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean species, respectively. We contains a total of 605 scleractinian species, 76% of the identified a total of 133 scleractinian species, of which three world’s total, including c. 15 (2.5%) endemic to the area have been previously recorded only in the western Indian (Veron et al., 2009). The reefs of the Coral Triangle are also Ocean and five are presently undescribed. The mean species amongst those most threatened globally by human activities richness of the Acropora at Pulau Weh is similar to regions such as destructive fishing and pollution (Todd et al., 2010; within the Coral Triangle. This high species richness plus Fisher et al., 2011). Consequently, the protection of this the high proportion of endemics suggests that the Andaman hotspot of biodiversity is one of the major goals of marine Sea is of similarly high conservation value to the Coral conservation (Clifton, 2009). Triangle. We suggest that an international initiative similar The Coral Triangle Initiative is a collaborative conserva- to the Coral Triangle Initiative is required to conserve this tion project that includes the governments of Indonesia, region, which includes the territorial waters of six countries. Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands (Clifton, 2009). Areas outside the Keywords Aceh, biodiversity, conservation, coral reefs, Coral Triangle, however, are important given the regional Coral Triangle Initiative variation of the scleractinian fauna within Indonesia (e.g. This paper contains supplementary material that can be Wallace, 1999) but may be overlooked with such intense found online at http://journals.cambridge.org focus on the Coral Triangle (Fisher et al., 2011). Sumatra, although part of Indonesia, is not considered part of the Coral Triangle and is therefore not a focus of the Initiative. In particular, the province of Aceh, in northern Sumatra, is likely to be of high biogeographical significance because EDI RUDI and NUR FADLI Centre for Marine and Fisheries Studies, Syiah Kuala of its position at the junction of the Andaman Sea, the University, Banda Aceh, Aceh, Indonesia Indian Ocean and the Straits of Malacca (Brown, 2007). STUART J. CAMPBELL Wildlife Conservation Society, Bogor, Indonesia Because of political instability over most of the last 150 years ANDREW S. HOEY* and ANDREW H. BAIRD (corresponding author) ARC Centre of Aceh remains almost completely unexplored scientifically Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, (Brown, 2007). Neither Veron (2000) nor Wallace (1999) Queensland 4811, Australia. E-mail [email protected] examined material from Aceh and to the best of our MATTHEW LINKIE Fauna & Flora International, Kuta Alam Lampriet, Banda Aceh, Indonesia knowledge the area has not be visited by a coral taxonomist since the Dutch colonial period. Consequently, we have *Also at: Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a poor understanding of the scleractinian fauna of this fi Received 23 October 2011. Revision requested 6 December 2011. region. Data de cient areas, such as Aceh, the Andaman and Accepted 7 February 2012. Nicobar Islands, and the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar, © 2012 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 46(4), 482–485 doi:10.1017/S0030605312000178 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 02 Oct 2021 at 11:34:17, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605312000178 The Coral Triangle Initiative 483 Aceh N Sulawesi Riau Halmahera West Sumatra New Britain West Java S Sulawesi Bali FIG. 1 Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, showing the Coral Triangle and the location of the nine regions used to compare the species richness of Acropora. require biodiversity surveys to facilitate assessment of 30 regional conservation priorities (Brown, 2007; Fisher et al., 25 b 2011 ab ). ab ab ab The aim of this study is to describe the shallow water 20 ab ab Scleractinia of Pulau Weh, Aceh, to facilitate an assessment a of its conservation significance. A species list for Pulau Weh 15 a 4–810 was compiled from -m line intercept transects at 10 11 sites in 2005 (Baird et al., 2005), six of which were resurveyed in November 2009. The list was supplemented 5 Species richness (mean ± SE) with species encountered incidentally during these surveys. 0 We also compare the species richness of the Acropora of Bali Pulau Weh with another eight regions within Indonesia and Aceh Riau fi West Java Papua New Guinea, ve of which are within the Coral S SulawesiN SulawesiHalmaheraNew Britain Triangle. For this comparison the number of Acropora West Sumatra FIG. 2 Mean number of Acropora species per 10 m line intercept species was estimated in 40-minute haphazard swims at four 2009 3–5 transect at nine regions in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea sites on Pulau Weh in November and sites in each (Fig. 1). Sites within the Coral Triangle are in grey; sites outside of the further eight regions (Fig. 1). Sites in these eight the Coral Triangle are in white. An ANOVA indicated there regions were surveyed by AHB between 2001 and 2007. were significant differences in the mean species richness among 5 3 52 5 0 005 A one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post-hoc test sites (F(8, 30) . ,P . ). Letters indicate groups for which was used to test for difference in the mean number means are not significantly different, as determined by Tukey’s of Acropora species among the regions. All data were post-hoc test. collected by snorkelling, restricting the surveys to depths , 4 m. All species identifications where performed by AHB Acropora digitifera), Indian Ocean species (e.g. Acropora in the field, from images taken in the field, or from small branchi, Acropora roseni), Pacific Ocean species (e.g. samples of the colony skeleton with reference to Wallace Acropora globiceps, Acropora lutkeni, Scapophyllia cylind- (1999) and/or Veron (2000). All reference material for rica) plus locally abundant species found mainly in identifications is stored at the Centre for Marine and Indonesia (e.g. Acropora pinguis, Acropora bifurcata). A Fisheries Studies, Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, total of 133 hermatypic scleractinian species were identified, Aceh, Indonesia. including three new records for the region (A. branchi, The scleractinian fauna of Pulau Weh is unique, being a A. roseni, Montastrea serageldini) and five taxa potentially composite of widespread Indo-Pacific species (e.g. Acropora new to science (Appendix 1). Pulau Weh is the western hyacinthus, Acropora humilis, Acropora gemmifera, boundary of 13 Pacific Ocean species and the eastern © 2012 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 46(4), 482–485 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 02 Oct 2021 at 11:34:17, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605312000178 484 E. Rudi et al. boundary of four Indian Ocean species (Appendix 1). Eight Initiative will be required to conserve the reefs of this area, species are found only within the Indonesian archipelago which include the territorial waters of India, Indonesia, (Appendix 1). Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand. This species composition supports Wallace’s(1999) description of a distinct Sumatran Acropora fauna but the Acknowledgements presence of a number of Indian Ocean species and potential endemics suggest that the fauna of Aceh may be even more The research was supported by an International distinct. The high proportion of potential new species also Collaborative Grant for International Publication Batch II supports Allen & Adrim’s(2003) suggestion that the area is from the Director General of Higher Education, Depart- a distinct province in the Indo-Pacific. Both Veron (2000) ment of National Education Indonesia (Contract number: and Wallace (1999) suggest there are many more species to 656/SP2H/PP/DP2M/VII/2009, 30/07/2009). WCS was be found in the area and Wallace & Muir (2005) described supported by the Kezler Foundation.