Marine Biodiversity in the Caribbean: Regional Estimates and Distribution Patterns

Patricia Miloslavich,Juan Manuel Díaz,Juan José Alvarado,Elva Escobar-Briones,Cristina Díaz,Aniuska Kazandjian,Fernando Zapata,Ross Robertson,Jorge Cortés,Eduardo Klein,Julio Castillo,Alberto Martín,Juan José Cruz-Motta,Judith Gobin,Ana Carolina Bastidas,Ernesto Weil,Manuel Ortiz

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011916

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the distribution patterns of marine biodiversity and summarizes the major activities of the Census of Marine Life program in the Caribbean region. The coastal Caribbean region is a large marine ecosystem (LME) characterized by coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrasses, but including other environments, such as sandy beaches and rocky shores. These tropical ecosystems incorporate a high diversity of associated flora and fauna, and the nations that border the Caribbean collectively encompass a major global marine biodiversity hot spot. We analyze the state of knowledge of marine biodiversity based on the geographic distribution of georeferenced species records and regional taxonomic lists. A total of 12,046 marine species are reported in this paper for the Caribbean region. These include representatives from 31 animal phyla, two plant phyla, one group of Chromista, and three groups of Protoctista. Sampling effort has been greatest in shallow, nearshore waters, where there is relatively good coverage of species records; offshore and deep environments have been less studied. Additionally, we found that the currently accepted classification of marine ecoregions of the Caribbean did not apply for the benthic distributions of five relatively well known taxonomic groups. Coastal species richness tends to concentrate along the Antillean arc (Cuba to the southernmost Antilles) and the northern coast of South America (Venezuela – Colombia), while no pattern can be observed in the deep sea with the available data. Several factors make it impossible to determine the extent to which these distribution patterns accurately reflect the true situation for marine biodiversity in general: (1) highly localized concentrations of collecting effort and a lack of collecting in many areas and ecosystems, (2) high variability among collecting methods, (3) limited taxonomic expertise for many groups, and (4) differing levels of activity in the study of different taxa.

Highlights

Physical and geological description of the Caribbean The Caribbean Sea is a semienclosed basin of the westernAtlantic Ocean, bounded by the coasts of Central and South America on two sides and by the Antilles island chain on the other two (Figure 1)
The main data sources used for constructing these matrices are presented in Table 1, which lists the essential literature for marine biodiversity studies in the Caribbean
The Caribbean is no exception to the general problem of limited taxonomic expertise

Summary

Introduction

Atlantic Ocean, bounded by the coasts of Central and South America on two sides and by the Antilles island chain on the other two (Figure 1). It has an area of about 2,754,000 km, a volume of nearly 6.56106 km, and over 13,500 km of coastline, and is home to 26 countries as well as 19 dependent territories of France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Toward the east and northeast, the closely spaced chain of islands, banks, and sills of the Antilles Islands arc separates the Caribbean from the Atlantic Ocean and acts as a sieve for the inflow of Atlantic water [1], whereas toward the northwest the Caribbean is linked to the Gulf of Mexico by the Yucatan Channel. Volcanic activity and earthquakes are common in the Caribbean, as are destructive hurricanes, most of which originate in the central Atlantic

Methods

Results

Conclusion