McFadden Catherine S, Erickson Katie L, Lane Audra, Nassongole Bibiana, Aguilar Steven, Dunakey Sabra K, Durkin Kathleen M, Lalas Jue A A, Kushida Yuka, Macrina Laura, Minor Natalie P, Morales-Paredes Mildred, Nelson Josephine, Peddada Asha, Poole Sophie, Porto Rafael, Purow-Ruderman Risa, Snyder Karen E, Wismar Theo, Samimi-Namin Kaveh, Baria-Rodriguez Maria Vanessa, Benzoni Francesca, Huang Danwei, Reimer James D, Paulay Gustav, Quattrini Andrea M, Ekins Merrick, Benayahu Yehuda
Department of Biology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA, 91711, USA.
CESAM and Biology Department, University of Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 2;15(1):15461. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-98790-7.
Documentation of biodiversity and its geographical distribution is necessary to understand the processes and drivers of evolutionary diversification as well as to guide conservation and management initiatives. Among the most emblematic patterns of biodiversity in the world's oceans is the Coral Triangle (Indo-Australian Archipelago), widely recognized to be the center of species richness for a variety of marine life forms. The distribution of biodiversity remains incompletely documented, however, for a majority of reef-associated invertebrate taxa, including the zooxanthellate soft corals (Octocorallia) that dominate hard substrate on many Indo-Pacific reefs. We used a genetic approach to document the diversity of Indo-Pacific soft corals, sequencing two single-locus barcoding markers for > 4400 soft coral specimens and assigning individuals to molecular operational taxonomic units as proxies of species. We document two centers of species richness for zooxanthellate soft corals, one in the Indo-Australian Archipelago and a second, equally diverse center in the Western Indian Ocean. Centers of endemicity for soft corals are coincident with these centers of species richness, although the peripheral Red Sea and Hawaii also support high proportions of endemic taxa. The patterns documented here suggest that biogeographic distributions of soft coral families may be driven in part by larval dispersal potential: taxa with benthic larvae are absent from most oceanic islands of the central Pacific and are represented by higher proportions of endemic taxa in other geographic regions. Our findings demonstrate the distinct biogeographic patterns among reef taxa and underscore the need to document and analyze species distributions of more reef-associated invertebrate groups to derive a complete picture of reef biogeography.
记录生物多样性及其地理分布对于理解进化多样化的过程和驱动因素以及指导保护和管理举措至关重要。世界海洋生物多样性最具代表性的模式之一是珊瑚三角区（印度 - 澳大利亚群岛），它被广泛认为是多种海洋生物物种丰富度的中心。然而，对于大多数与珊瑚礁相关的无脊椎动物类群，包括在许多印度 - 太平洋珊瑚礁上占据硬底质的虫黄藻软珊瑚（八放珊瑚亚纲），生物多样性的分布记录仍不完整。我们采用遗传方法记录印度 - 太平洋软珊瑚的多样性，对超过4400个软珊瑚标本的两个单基因座条形码标记进行测序，并将个体归类为分子操作分类单元作为物种的替代物。我们记录了虫黄藻软珊瑚的两个物种丰富度中心，一个在印度 - 澳大利亚群岛，另一个在西印度洋，同样具有丰富的多样性。软珊瑚的特有性中心与这些物种丰富度中心重合，尽管周边的红海和夏威夷也有高比例的特有类群。这里记录的模式表明，软珊瑚科的生物地理分布可能部分由幼虫扩散潜力驱动：底栖幼虫类群在中太平洋的大多数海洋岛屿上不存在，而在其他地理区域则有更高比例的特有类群。我们的研究结果展示了珊瑚礁类群之间独特的生物地理模式，并强调需要记录和分析更多与珊瑚礁相关的无脊椎动物类群的物种分布，以全面了解珊瑚礁生物地理学。
