CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 511458, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Oct 10;946:174429. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174429. Epub 2024 Jul 2.
Understanding species distribution and the related driving processes is a fundamental issue in ecology. However, incomplete data on reef-building corals in the ecoregions of the South China Sea have hindered a comprehensive understanding of coral distribution patterns and their ecological drivers in the Northwest Pacific (NWP). This study investigated the coral species diversity and distribution patterns in the NWP by collecting species presence/absence data from the South China Sea and compiling an extensive species distribution database for the region, and explored their major environmental drivers. Our NWP coral database included 612 recorded coral species across 15 ecoregions. Of these, 536 coral species were recorded in the South China Sea Oceanic Islands after compilation, confirming the extraordinary coral species diversity in this ecoregion. Coral alpha diversity was found to decrease with increasing latitude in the whole NWP, while the influence of the Kuroshio Current on environmental conditions in its path results in a slower decline in species richness with latitude compared to regions within the South China Sea. Beta-diversity decomposition revealed that nestedness patterns mainly occurred between low and high latitude ecoregions, while communities within similar latitudes exhibited a turnover component, particularly pronounced at high latitudes. The impact of environmental factors on coral assemblage structure outweighed the effects of spatial distance. Temperature, especially winter temperature, and light intensity strongly influenced alpha diversity and beta diversity's nestedness component. Additionally, turbidity and winter temperature variations at high latitudes contributed to the turnover pattern observed among communities in the NWP. These findings elucidate the assembly processes and major environmental drivers shaping different coral communities in the NWP, highlighting the significant role of specific environmental filtering in coral distribution patterns and providing valuable insights for coral species conservation efforts.
了解物种分布及其相关驱动过程是生态学的一个基本问题。然而，南海生态区造礁石珊瑚的数据不完整，阻碍了对西北太平洋（NWP）珊瑚分布模式及其生态驱动因素的全面理解。本研究通过收集南海的物种存在/缺失数据，并编制了该区域广泛的物种分布数据库，调查了 NWP 的珊瑚物种多样性和分布模式，并探讨了其主要环境驱动因素。我们的 NWP 珊瑚数据库包括 15 个生态区的 612 种记录珊瑚物种。其中，经汇编后，在南海海洋岛屿记录到 536 种珊瑚物种，证实了该生态区非凡的珊瑚物种多样性。研究发现，在整个 NWP 范围内，珊瑚的 alpha 多样性随纬度的增加而降低，而黑潮对其路径上环境条件的影响导致与南海内部区域相比，物种丰富度随纬度的下降速度较慢。β多样性分解表明嵌套模式主要发生在低纬度和高纬度生态区之间，而在相似纬度的群落中则表现出周转率成分，在高纬度地区尤为明显。环境因素对珊瑚组合结构的影响大于空间距离的影响。温度，尤其是冬季温度和光照强度强烈影响 alpha 多样性和 beta 多样性的嵌套成分。此外，高纬度地区的浊度和冬季温度变化导致了 NWP 群落之间观察到的周转率模式。这些发现阐明了塑造 NWP 不同珊瑚群落的组合过程和主要环境驱动因素，强调了特定环境过滤在珊瑚分布模式中的重要作用，并为珊瑚物种保护工作提供了有价值的见解。
