The Study of Species Richness in Coral Communities of Vietnam

Yuri Ya Latypov

doi:10.13189/eer.2017.050305

Abstract

Dynamics of biodiversity research traced reef-building scleractinian on the reefs of Vietnam for more than 35 years. Found 376 corals species, pertaining to 80 genera (including nine ahermatypic corals), of which 153 species, belonging to 28 genera, were not previously known for that region, and 16 species from six genera were described for the first time. As in most Indo-Pacific reefs, the species diversity of Vietnam's reefs consists mainly of the members of five families: Acroporidae (98 species), Faviidae (42 species), Fungiidae (32 species), Poritidae (31 species), and Dendrophylliidae (26 species), making up altogether 64.48% of the total scleractinian species composition. The species composition and high diversity of Vietnam's coral fauna, as well as its close similarity to the Southwest Pacific coral fauna, allow one to refer it to the Indonesia-Polynesian center of origin of the coral faunas of the tropical Indo-Pacific. The whole Vietnam coast, from the Gulf of Tonkin to the Gulf of Siam, is a biogeographically single whole and is part of the Indo-Polynesian Province of the Indo-Pacific Area.

Highlights

The coastline of Vietnam is over 3200km long and covers 15 degrees in latitude, from the Gulf of Siam in the south (8°N) to the Chinese border in the north (23°N)
Vietnam and its coastline are divided into 5 parts, the Gulf of Tonkin, Central and Southern Vietnam, Gulf of Siam, and Spratly Islands [1]
The first information about the Scleractinia Vietnam appeared in 1937, after the publication of Seren [6] based on the results of his expedition to the "De Lanessan”

Summary

Introduction

The coastline of Vietnam is over 3200km long and covers 15 degrees in latitude, from the Gulf of Siam in the south (8°N) to the Chinese border in the north (23°N). The comparison of species diversity , degree of similarity and of dominating of Scleractinia species composition in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia revealed more similarities than differences in coral faunas of these regions (70% of species are common).

Results

Conclusion