National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand.
PLoS One. 2010 Aug 2;5(8):e10905. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010905.
The marine-biodiversity assessment of New Zealand (Aotearoa as known to Māori) is confined to the 200 nautical-mile boundary of the Exclusive Economic Zone, which, at 4.2 million km(2), is one of the largest in the world. It spans 30 degrees of latitude and includes a high diversity of seafloor relief, including a trench 10 km deep. Much of this region remains unexplored biologically, especially the 50% of the EEZ deeper than 2,000 m. Knowledge of the marine biota is based on more than 200 years of marine exploration in the region. The major oceanographic data repository is the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), which is involved in several Census of Marine Life field projects and is the location of the Southwestern Pacific Regional OBIS Node; NIWA is also data manager and custodian for fisheries research data owned by the Ministry of Fisheries. Related data sources cover alien species, environmental measures, and historical information. Museum collections in New Zealand hold more than 800,000 registered lots representing several million specimens. During the past decade, 220 taxonomic specialists (85 marine) from 18 countries have been engaged in a project to review New Zealand's entire biodiversity. The above-mentioned marine information sources, published literature, and reports were scrutinized to give the results summarized here for the first time (current to 2010), including data on endemism and invasive species. There are 17,135 living species in the EEZ. This diversity includes 4,315 known undescribed species in collections. Species diversity for the most intensively studied phylum-level taxa (Porifera, Cnidaria, Mollusca, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Kinorhyncha, Echinodermata, Chordata) is more or less equivalent to that in the ERMS (European Register of Marine Species) region, which is 5.5 times larger in area than the New Zealand EEZ. The implication is that, when all other New Zealand phyla are equally well studied, total marine diversity in the EEZ may be expected to equal that in the ERMS region. This equivalence invites testable hypotheses to explain it. There are 177 naturalized alien species in New Zealand coastal waters, mostly in ports and harbours. Marine-taxonomic expertise in New Zealand covers a broad number of taxa but is, proportionately, at or near its lowest level since the Second World War. Nevertheless, collections are well supported by funding and are continually added to. Threats and protection measures concerning New Zealand's marine biodiversity are commented on, along with potential and priorities for future research.
新西兰（毛利语中的“长白云之乡”）的海洋生物多样性评估仅限于专属经济区的 200 海里边界内，该区域面积达 420 万平方公里，是世界上最大的区域之一。它跨越了 30 个纬度，包括一个深达 10 公里的海沟在内的多种海底地貌。该区域的大部分地区在生物方面仍未得到充分探索，特别是在 2000 米以上深度的专属经济区的 50%。海洋生物群的知识是基于该地区 200 多年的海洋探索。主要的海洋学数据存储库是国家水和大气研究所（NIWA），该研究所参与了几项海洋生物普查实地项目，是西南太平洋区域 OBIS 节点的所在地；NIWA 还是渔业研究数据的数据库经理和保管人，这些数据归渔业部所有。相关数据源涵盖了外来物种、环境措施和历史信息。新西兰的博物馆藏品拥有超过 80 万份已注册的标本，代表着数百万个标本。在过去的十年中，来自 18 个国家的 220 名分类学专家（85 名是海洋学专家）参与了一个项目，对新西兰的全部生物多样性进行了审查。对上述海洋信息源、已发表的文献和报告进行了仔细审查，首次汇总了此处总结的结果（截至 2010 年），包括特有种和入侵物种的数据。专属经济区有 17135 种活物种。这种多样性包括在收藏中已知的 4315 种未描述的物种。最广泛研究的门级分类群（多孔动物门、刺胞动物门、软体动物门、腕足动物门、苔藓动物门、动吻动物门、棘皮动物门、脊索动物门）的物种多样性与 ERMS（欧洲海洋物种登记册）区域大致相当，而 ERMS 区域的面积是新西兰专属经济区的 5.5 倍。这意味着，当所有其他新西兰门级动物都得到同等程度的研究时，专属经济区的海洋多样性可能与 ERMS 区域相当。这种等同性引发了可以验证的假设来解释它。新西兰沿海水域有 177 种自然归化的外来物种，主要在港口和港口。新西兰的海洋分类学专业知识涵盖了广泛的分类群，但自第二次世界大战以来，其比例处于或接近最低水平。尽管如此，这些藏品得到了资金的大力支持，并在不断增加。对新西兰海洋生物多样性的威胁和保护措施进行了评论，并对未来研究的潜力和重点进行了探讨。
