[Coral-List] Coral species list for Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System
Osmar Luiz
osmarluizjr at gmail.com
Sun Apr 24 08:40:59 EDT 2011
Dear Doug, Brittany and all.
I don't mind at all for those semantic questions, but If you are looking for correcting naming the "Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System" I suggest you to take a look at the follow paper:
Middle America, Not Mesoamerica, is the Accurate Term for Biogeography
Author(s): Kevin Winker
Source: The Condor, 113(1):5-6. 2011.
Published By: Cooper Ornithological Society
URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1525/cond.2011.100093
I can send the PDF if you can't get acces to it.
Cheers
Osmar
-----------
Osmar J. Luiz, Jr.
Ph.D. candidate
Department of Biological Sciences
Macquarie University
Sydney, NSW, 2109
Doctoral Fellow
Sydney Institute of Marine Science
Building 22 Chowder Bay Road
Sydney, NSW
Australia
e-mail: osmarluizjr at gmail.com
phone: +612 9850 8162
mobile: +61 0420817392
http://www.bio.mq.edu.au/computational_ecology/people_osmar_luiz.html
Publications list: http://publicationslist.org/osmar.luiz
On 22/04/2011, at 6:41 AM, Douglas Fenner wrote:
> Almost all reef-building coral species in the Caribbean have ranges
> throughout the Caribbean, since the Caribbean is a relatively small body of
> water (compared to the Indo-Pacific, for instance). Most all of the species
> have already been found in places like Belize, Cozumel, Akumal, Cancun area,
> and so on, and some of the others may be there but just haven't been found
> there yet. There are a very few which have not been found in the NW or W
> Caribbean at all, and might (might) not be there (to prove they are not there
> is like trying to prove the null hypothesis). One that is pretty sure not to
> be there is Millepora squarrosa. It is only known from the southeast
> Caribbean, and reports elsewhere are likely all errors. Millepora complanata
> can look a bit like it, but if you look in the Humann book you'll see M.
> squarrosa is actually quite distinctive and easy to recognize. A second
> species is Leptoseris cailleti, a small deep-water species that is rarely
> reported anywhere. Millepora striata is rarely reported, but I reported it
> from Belize, so it is in the MesoAmerican reef system. There are a few other
> rarely reported or less well known species that may or may not be there, such
> as Madracis senaria, Madracis asperula, Madracis carambi and Porites branneri.
> The situation is quite different with the azooxanthellate corals. How many are
> present in an area is poorly known, probably because they are small and
> cryptic, but they may be patchy as well, since they typically live in very
> specific habitats like cavern roofs that are searched less often and less
> completely than open habitats. Also, their identification is not a trivial
> matter for most of us reef biologists, most require sending a sample to the one
> or two people in the whole world who are experts on their taxonomy (I'm not one
> of them, Dr. Stephen Cairns at the Smithsonian is one, and can put you in touch
> with the others).
> For the zooxanthellate species, you can find range maps in Veron (2000),
> but it appears he fills in all the Caribbean for any species found somewhere in
> the Caribbean. He's working on a much more detailed database called "Coral
> Geographic."
>
> To my way of thinking Belize has a true barrier reef, but the rest of the
> MesoAmerican reef system is not a barrier reef as far as I know, but I'm no
> expert on it. A barrier reef has to have a significant lagoon between it and
> land, and my impression is outside Belize, reefs are pretty much fringing. I've
> also heard of the Florida Keys reefs referred to as a barrier reef. I prefer
> the older name, "Florida Reef Tract" since as far as I know it consists of a
> series of relatively small reefs with wide gaps between them, and more
> continuous ridges of hard grounds that are not currently living coral reefs and
> don't get close to the surface. Gene Shinn also tells me that the Florida Keys
> reefs have been called bank reefs. That said, most reefs are not just coral
> reefs, they are coralgal reefs or even algal coral reefs, with coralline algae
> and other calcareous algae contributing as much or more calcium buildup than the
> corals. Also, the Great Barrier Reef is not a single reef but a whole series of
> about two thousand reefs, with gaps of various sizes (a maze that in effect is
> a barrier to navigation unless you have GPS and a very good map system and are
> a good navigator). There is one section that is a nearly continuous barrier,
> the section called the "Ribbon Reefs." I'd also remind people of the barrier
> reef in New Caledonia, which is like Belize and the Ribbon Reefs in the GBR, a
> nearly continuous barrier with some small gaps. New Caledonia is said to have
> the longest continuous barrier reef in the world, and likely that is not widely
> known. Anyhow, "MesoAmerican reef system" sounds fine with me, as does Belize
> Barrier Reef, but adding barrier to MesoAmerican does not, nor does it for
> Florida. It seems like today people think the word "barrier" adds charisma, so
> they want to call their reef a barrier reef. Fringing reef ought to also have
> some charisma, think of the Ningaloo fringing reef in western Australia,
> longest fringing reef in the world. Not nearly as well known as the GBR, but a
> huge and amazing reef. Think of Indonesia, which has more coral reefs than any
> other country in the world (slightly more than Australia), I bet most of their
> reefs are fringing. Also among the most diverse in the world, a true world
> treasure. Fringing is good. Doug
>
> Cheers, Doug
>
> Fenner, D. 2001. Biogeography of three Caribbeancorals (Scleractinia);
> Tubastraea
>
> coccineainvades the Gulf of Mexico. Bulletin of Marine Science 69:
> 1175-1189.
>
> Fenner, D. 1999. New Observations on the Stony Coral Species (Scleractinia,
> Milliporidae, Stylaseridae) of Belize(Central America) and Cozumel(Mexico).
> Bulletin of Marine Science 64: 143-154.
>
> Fenner, D. P. 1993. Some reefs and corals of Roatan (Honduras), Cayman Brac, and
> Little Cayman. Atoll Research Bulletin 388: 1-30.
> Weerdt, W. H. de. 1990. Discontinuous distribution of the tropical west
> Atlantic hydrocoral Millepora squarrosa. Beaufort. 41: 195-203.
>
> Douglas Fenner
> Coral Reef Monitoring Ecologist
> Dept Marine & Wildlife Resources
> American Samoa
>
>
> Mailing address:
> PO Box 3730
> Pago Pago, AS 96799
> USA
>
>
> work phone 684 633 4456
>
>
> Sharply increased mass loss from glaciers and ice caps in the Canadian Arctic
> Archipelago
>
>
> Between the periods 2004–2006 and 2007–2009, the rate of mass loss sharply
> increased from 31 ± 8 Gt yr 1 to 92 ± 12 Gt yr 1 in direct response to warmer
> summer temperatures, to which rates of ice loss are highly sensitive (64 ± 14
> Gt yr 1 per 1 K increase).
>
> Gardner et al Nature
> http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10089.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20110421
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Brittany Huntington <brittanyhuntington at gmail.com>
> To: coral-list at coral.aoml..noaa.gov
> Sent: Thu, April 21, 2011 4:13:17 AM
> Subject: [Coral-List] Coral species list for Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System
>
> I am interested in determining the regional species pool for scleractinian
> corals within the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. Published reports weigh
> in around 60 species from what I have found but would appreciate any leads
> to a taxonomic list of coral species observed in the region.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Brittany Huntington
>
> Brittany Huntington
> Doctoral Candidate
> Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries
> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
> University of Miami
> 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
> Miami, FL 33149
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