Download Biodiversity of benthos in the coastal waters of Southeast Chapter 7

Chapter 7
Biodiversity of benthos in the coastal waters of Southeast
Asia (Project-3: Benthos Group)
Yoshihisa Shirayama
Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University,
459 Shirahama, Wakayama 649-2211, Japan
Introduction
The JSPS Core University Program on
Coastal Marine Science (CMS) started in
April 2001 under the leadership of the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute
(formerly the Ocean Research Institute) of
the University of Tokyo and will be completed in March 2011 (FY 2010). The
project team comprises more than 300 marine scientists from six countries: Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Marine biodiversity
research is one of four components of the
project (Project-3 in the CMS). The research team of Project 3 is composed of
96 marine biologists and is divided into
four groups: fishes, benthos, plankton, and
sea macro algae/sea grasses. The research
group on benthos includes 12 leading
benthic biologists: one from Indonesia,
four from Japan, two from Malaysia, one
from Thailand and two from Vietnam (Table 1, Appendix-1). But they are only national coordinators of benthos group, and
many more participants from 5 south Asian
countries jointed the project.
The study area covered all coastal regions of the participating countries. Be-
cause benthos group had tight relationships
with another international biodiversity program named NaGISA (Natural Geography
In Shore Area) of the Census of Marine
Life (CoML), the research plan of NaGISA
is adopted in the region. The members of
the benthos group thus have been making
efforts to contribute to the NaGISA program from the Southeast Asia and Japanese coastal region. Our research outputs
are compiled here and these demonstrate
the scientific accomplishments by the
benthos group. We also have been trying
to build capacity among young benthos
taxonomists in Southeast Asia. The result
of this activity is shown in Part III of this
volume.
Research Plan
The benthos group focuses on studies on
taxonomy, morphology, zoogeography and
ecology of benthic animals living mainly
in either seagrass bed or macroalgal area.
The members of the benthos group have
been carrying out their own sampling individually in their own project, but some
of them participated in NaGISA project
voluntarily and carried out sampling fol-
S. Nishida, M. D. Fortes and N. Miyazaki, eds.
Coastal Marine Science in Southeast Asia —Synthesis Report of the Core University Program of the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science: Coastal Marine Science (2001–2010), pp. 81–85.
© by TERRAPUB 2011.
Indonesia
Indonesia
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Malaysia
Malaysia
Philippines
Thailand
Vietnam
Vietnam
Susetiono
Suharsono
Yoshihisa Shirayama (leader)
Motohiro Shimanaga
Toshihiko Fujita
Hiroshi Saito
Kazunori Hasegawa
Zulfigar Yasin
Aileen Tan Shau-Hwai
Annabelle del Norte Campos
Somchai Bussarawit
Pham Dinh Trong
Phan Thi Kim Hong
Research Centre for Oceanography, Indonesian Institute of Sciences
Research Centre for Oceanography, Indonesian Institute of Sciences
Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University
Aitsu Marine Station, Kumamoto University
National Museum of Nature and Science
National Museum of Nature and Science
Narional Museum of Nature and Science
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Universiti Sains Malaysia
University of Philippines
Natural History Museum, National Science Museum
Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources
Institute of Oceanography
Country
Name
Institution
Y. SHIRAYAMA
Table 1.
Core members of the Benthos Group for the JSPS Coastal Marine Science Program.
82
Fig. 1. Sampling sites of benthos following the NaGISA project protocol during
the CMS Program. I: Dau Moi, Quang
ninh, Ha Long, Vietnam, J: Song Lo,
Nhatrang, Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, K: Sawi,
Chumpon, Thailand, L: Ban Don Bay,
Surat-Thani, Thailand, M: Phuket
Tangkhen, Thailand, N: Libong Island, Thailand, O: Pulau Gazumbo, Penang, Malaysia, P: Pulau Besar, Johor, Malaysia, Q: Sg
Pulai, Malaysia, R: Kuta Bay, Lombok, Indonesia, S: Bitung, Lembeh Strait,
Sulawesi, Indonesia, T: Calaparan, Taklong
Is., Guimaras, Philippines.
lowing the standard protocol of NaGISA
(Fig. 1). Samplings were mainly done using their own funds.
The NaGISA samplings also have been
carried out during sampling protocol training workshops (see Part III, this volume).
The workshop venues were as follows:
Nha Trang, Vietnam; Pulau Bassar Malaysia. The venues of the taxonomy workshops were also located in coastal areas,
which facilitated the members of the
benthos group in collecting organisms following NaGISA sampling protocol from
mainly seagrass beds.
Because it takes time to produce identification guides for any benthic taxonomic
groups, we did not try to cover the whole
area of Southeast Asia but decided to focus on certain taxon from certain country.
As results, we published three field guides
during the period of project, and still some
drafts are under review.
Biodiversity of benthos in the coastal waters of Southeast Asia
Results
Trends of biodiversity
Based on the results obtained through
the CMS Program in collaboration with
NaGISA, it is clearly confirmed that
biodiversity of benthic community in the
coastal region of member countries is the
highest in the world. It is especially true
for seagrass bed community, that the
biodiversity has latitudinal gradient;
namely it is highest in the tropical regions
near the equater. In this analysis, the CMS
provided key data to the research community who carried out statistical analysis to
elucidate the geographic pattern of coastal
marine biodiversity.
If we look at the biodiversity with reference to taxonomic groups, the region of
the CMS was found to be a hot spot of
benthic crustaceans. On the other hand,
diversity of mollusks from this region was
not very high compared to the Carribean
region. But this trend may be biased by the
very high taxonomic capacity of gastropods in NaGISA group from South American region. The fact points out the need of
taxonomy capacity building in the member countries of the CMS.
As pointed out strongly during COP10
of Convention on Biological Diversity held
in Nagoya in 2010, it is of urgent need to
start conservation effort of marine
biodiversity actively. The analysis of data
from the benthos group of CMS with other
global scale information, especially
NaGISA, several crucial environmental
problems were elucidated. Major drivers
that have impacts on benthic biodiversity
were found to be ocean acidification,
eutrophication, organic pollution, invasive
species and shipping industry. On the other
hand, impact of inorganic pollution was
found to be not very important. These results provide valuable suggestions for
marine policy that nutrient control in the
coastal region and effective strategies to
prevent invation of alian species are ma-
83
jor target for the future marine biodiversity
protection.
In summary, the CMS played a key role
for obtaining and understanding global
scale baseline of marine biodiversity in the
beginning of 21st century. It however
should be noticed that such world wide
overview could be done only by compilation of each local scientific accomplishment carried out by scientists of the member countries.
Research papers
The studies by the members of the
bethos group resulted in 87 full paper publications (see Appendix-2). Many of these
publications are devoted to describe
benthic faunae in the research area as well
as ecological study of benthic community
in the area. Some of these publications
were devoted to the analyses of environmental factors that determine the global
scale biodiversity characteristics published
from NaGISA international group (Iken et
al. 2010, Konar et al. 2010, Benedetti et
al. 2010, Cruz-Motta et al. 2010).
The partner of bethos group of CMS,
i.e. NaGISA Western Pacific, held 4 international conference on benthic marine
biodiversity (see Part III). More than 200
papers (oral and posters) have been presented in these conferences (not listed in
Appendix-2), and some of them were published in a special volumes of the Publications from the Seto Marine Biological
Laboratory, Kyoto University (Rigby and
Shirayama 2007, Harada and Shirayama
2009).
Field guides and other publications
Two field guides so far have been published, namely echinoderms from Malaysia (Zulfigar et al. 2008), and hermit crabs
from Indonesia (Rahayu et al. 2008) and
one is now under printing (Gastropoda
from Philippine). Also sampling protocol
is published (Rigby et al. 2007). These
publications helped implementing interna-
84
Y. SHIRAYAMA
tional collaboration of benthic biodiversity
study in the Western Pacific Region.
WEB sites of NaGISA
Web sites of project NaGISA is used
for international communication of participants of CMS. Information of the movement of research activities have been announced to the world scientists, and some
case regional international meeting hosted
participants from other nations than 6
countries participating the CMS.
Database
All biodiversity data of the region obtained through the CMS have been stored
in OBIS (Ocean Biogeography Information System). So far 2314 biogeographical records have been published from
OBIS by the member of CMS. Still there
are many data that are under way to be
published from OBIS. Efforts for
uploading data to OBIS will continue in
other projects succeeding NaGISA.
Conclusion
This project has made great contribution
to develop studies of benthic biodiversity
in this region. Although research products
such as scientific papers and field guides
are great in terms of science, it should also
be pointed out that this project was the first
and great opportunity for marine biologists
in this region to develop and establish the
human network helping international studies on benthic biodiversity of the region.
Especially collaboration with global research project NaGISA helped participants
to catch up their research standard to the
truly international criteria. Both the CMS
as well as NaGISA will soon be finished.
But several activities have been established
to succeed these research activities. They
will contribute to continue this wonderful
international cooperative research framework in the Asian regions.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the members of benthos
group who made a great contribution to the JSPS
CMS Program. On behalf of the benthos group I
thank the JSPS, Nippon Foundation and Sloan Foundation for providing us with funds for fieldwork and
publications. Staffs of Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, Kyoto University, especially Hyakubun
Harada, Hiroshi Aoyama, Tetsuya Kato and Tohru
Iseto, helped organizing workshops and congress of
the project, and data management of the project. My
thanks also go to the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo in Japan,
the LIPI in Indonesia, the Phuket Marine Biological
Center in Thailand, the Universiti Sains Malaysia in
Malaysia, University of Philippines in Philippine,
Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources and
Institute of Oceanography in Vietnam for their support of the benthos group. I would like to forward
my special thanks to late Dr. Patricia Robin Rigby
of Seto Marine Biological Laboratory who contributed a lot for organizing international collaboratory
framework of this project.
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