Symposium on Marine Diversity and Biogeography in the Tropics. Pacific Science Congress, May-June 1991, Honolulu

摘要

Seven persons were asked to discuss the diversity and biogeography of variousgroups of marine organisms from as wide a geographic span as possible in thewarm Pacific. The organisms covered were marine algae, marine mollusks, andfishes; unfortunately, J. E. N. Veron of Australia, who was expected to speakon corals, was unable to attend. We present here three abstracts and threefull-length papers. No symposium on marine diversity has ever been presentedto the Congress, although each member country in the Congress is impacted byone or more oceans or seas. Of the major groups of marine organisms, probablythe least studied (and least understood) are the marine algae. The three papersare on algae and show different perspectives although the subject matter issystematics and ecology. In "Geographic patterns of diversity in benthic marinealgae," Paul Silva defines diversity and shows that although land plant diversityis greater in the tropics, marine algae show more diversity in the warm-temperateboundaries. In "Marine phytogeography of the Juan Fernandez Archipelago: Anew assessment," Bernabe Santelices shows that the relatively high diversity with32% endemism found in the Juan Fernandez Islands is largely due to the physicalbarrier of the cold northward-flowing Peru or Humboldt Current. Celia Smithin "Diversity in intertidal habitats: An assessment of the marine algae of selecthigh islands in the Hawaiian Archipelago" revealed many data that furnishedthe bases for far-reaching comparisons: age-related basalt substrates andlimestone benches on an island about 35,000 yr old yielded a flora with greaterdiversity than similar transects on a younger basalt island, contributing to theconclusion that similar diversity patterns appear to depend on substratesimilarity as well as current patterns around islands.The three abstracts cover algae from French Polynesia, fishes, and marinemollusks. The papers that stem from these abstracts have been or are beingpublished elsewhere.