Ms Sophie Vuleta1, Dr Shinichi Nakagawa1, Dr Tracy Ainsworth1
1University Of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia
Biodiversity is widely acknowledged as fundamental to ecosystem function and has long been established within the scientific literature, alongside the evidence for biodiversity decline under anthropogenic climate change. Tropical Scleractinian corals have historically, and continue to, play a major role in these discussions, predominating coral literature to date. Further, corals that do not maintain endosymbiosis with photosynthetic algae (Symbiodiniaceae) are often overlooked, despite making up approximately half of known Scleractinian species, and exhibiting broad biogeographical ranges. Here we undertake a systematic approach to map the global research effort to date for corals without endosymbiotic Symbiodiniaceae, for which we identify a total of 482 papers within the past 5 decades. It is estimated there are 711 species of coral without endosymbiotic Symbiodiniaceae, however we find research publications to be limited to approximately 150 species/genera, with minimal species studied in detail. The majority of identified research was also found to be focused on few locations globally, and predominantly linked to only a few species within specific habitat types. As such, despite increasing knowledge of the role of biodiversity, and the importance of corals to marine ecosystem biodiversity, we show that the research effort for species without Symbiodiniaceae has remained largely patchy and inconsistent. In addition, we also suggest that terminology used for research into this group requires re-evaluation to be consistent with photoendosymbiotic (tropical shallow water coral species) coral research. Overall, our research identifies large knowledge gaps surrounding Scleractinian coral diversity.
Biography:
Sophie Vuleta is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales. Her project centres on coral biology, and more specifically, corals without (or with variable) photoendosymbiosis. Her research to date has largely focused on systematically synthesising existing knowledge in this space.
