[Coral-List] Coral species list for Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System

[Osmar Luiz]

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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