Submarine Resources Project, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan.
PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e52607. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052607. Epub 2013 Jan 9.
The Hawaiian gold coral has a history of exploitation from the deep slopes and seamounts of the Hawaiian Islands as one of the precious corals commercialised in the jewellery industry. Due to its peculiar characteristic of building a scleroproteic skeleton, this zoanthid has been referred as Gerardia sp. (a junior synonym of Savalia Nardo, 1844) but never formally described or examined by taxonomists despite its commercial interest. While collection of Hawaiian gold coral is now regulated, globally seamounts habitats are increasingly threatened by a variety of anthropogenic impacts. However, impact assessment studies and conservation measures cannot be taken without consistent knowledge of the biodiversity of such environments. Recently, multiple samples of octocoral-associated zoanthids were collected from the deep slopes of the islands and seamounts of the Hawaiian Archipelago. The molecular and morphological examination of these zoanthids revealed the presence of at least five different species including the gold coral. Among these only the gold coral appeared to create its own skeleton, two other species are simply using the octocoral as substrate, and the situation is not clear for the final two species. Phylogenetically, all these species appear related to zoanthids of the genus Savalia as well as to the octocoral-associated zoanthid Corallizoanthus tsukaharai, suggesting a common ancestor to all octocoral-associated zoanthids. The diversity of zoanthids described or observed during this study is comparable to levels of diversity found in shallow water tropical coral reefs. Such unexpected species diversity is symptomatic of the lack of biological exploration and taxonomic studies of the diversity of seamount hexacorals.
夏威夷金珊瑚曾在夏威夷群岛的深海斜坡和海山被大量开采，是珠宝行业商业化的珍贵珊瑚之一。由于其构建硬蛋白骨骼的特殊特性，这种珊瑚虫被认为是 Gerardia sp.（Savalia Nardo，1844 的一个同物异名），但尽管具有商业价值，却从未被分类学家正式描述或检查过。虽然现在对夏威夷金珊瑚的采集受到了监管，但全球海山栖息地正受到各种人为影响的威胁。然而，如果没有对这些环境生物多样性的一致了解，就无法进行影响评估研究和保护措施。最近，从夏威夷群岛的深海斜坡和海山收集了多个八放珊瑚相关的珊瑚虫样本。对这些珊瑚虫的分子和形态学检查表明，至少存在五种不同的物种，包括金珊瑚。在这些物种中，只有金珊瑚似乎在创造自己的骨骼，另外两种物种只是简单地将八放珊瑚用作基质，而最后两种物种的情况尚不清楚。从系统发育上看，所有这些物种似乎都与 Savalia 属的珊瑚虫以及与八放珊瑚相关的珊瑚虫 Corallizoanthus tsukaharai 有关，这表明所有与八放珊瑚相关的珊瑚虫都有一个共同的祖先。在这项研究中描述或观察到的珊瑚虫多样性与浅海水域热带珊瑚礁的多样性水平相当。这种出乎意料的物种多样性表明，对海山六放珊瑚的生物多样性进行探索和分类学研究的程度还远远不够。
