Hundreds of new species discovered in coral reefs in Australia (Part I)

Hundreds of new species have surprised international researchers who are exploring the waters of the two islands of the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs in northwestern Australia, while the two seas have long been familiar. belong to divers.

The expedition collaborated with the Global Census of Marine Life project (Census of Marine Life) to help mark the international year of the 'International Year of the Reef', and also obtain a scientific inventory. The first system of magic soft coral named Octocoral with 8 tentacles around a polyp.

The explorers obtained some initial results as well as magnificent photographs after a four-year effort to document the diversity of life in Australia's famous coral reefs. Discoveries on the Lizard Island and Heron Islands (belonging to the Great Barrier Reef) as well as the Ningaloo Reef in northwestern Australia include:

- About 300 species of soft corals, half of which are new species.

- Dozens of small crustaceans, maybe one or more of them have never been known.

- An extremely rare species of two-legged crustaceans of the Maxillipiidae family, whose hind legs are like an odd whip that is three times larger than the body size. Only a few species of this family were discovered in the world.

- New tanaid crustaceans, they are shrimp-like creatures. Some have longer nails than the whole body.

- The extremely rare Cassiopeia jellyfish is photographed while upside down at the bottom of the sea, their tentacles twisting in the water column. This is a position that allows symbiotic algae to live in its fringes to capture light for photosynthesis.

The Ctenophore, or jellyfish, is found in the Wassteri, Heron Islands.(Photo: Gary Cranitch, Queensland Museum, 2008).

Many species of two-legged crustaceans are considered insects in the underwater world, of which an estimated 40 to 60% will be officially named for the first time.

Researchers have adopted a new method to standardize the measurement of the status, diversity and biological composition of coral reefs worldwide, and increase the efficiency of comparison. In preparation for future discoveries, divers must immobilize multiple plastic structures (such as empty doll houses) for marine life to settle on Lizard and Heron Islands. These doll houses are attractive residences for many marine species. They will be collected regularly within 1 to 3 years.

Dr Ian Poiner said: 'Coral faces many threats from ocean acidification, pollution, global warming to overfishing and the explosion of starfish numbers. Only by establishing biodiversity boundaries with human survey numbers can the effects of threats be known, thereby finding ways to mitigate their impact. ' Dr. Ian Poiner is currently the director of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

Dr. Julian Caley, an AIMS researcher and co-author of the project, said that three coral reefs were explored in two ocean basins with varying levels of biodiversity.

The characteristics of these three areas will provide a clue to predict the type of ecology of the known coral reefs and the less popular coral reefs.

Earlier studies have revealed differences in large ecological diversity in Lizard Island and the southern island of Heron in the Great Barrier Reef. There are 30% more hard corals and 40% more fish. The difference in species diversity has not been well understood, but the richness in this area tends to decrease with the distance from the equator.

Ningaloo coral reefs have the lowest biodiversity of the three surveyed reefs, which may be related to its relative isolation of other coral reef systems.

The two-legged crustacean (amphipod) has a hind leg like an odd whip.(Photo: dnr.sc.gov)

Understanding the biodiversity gradient along with the impact of the link will help scientists predict the diversity of coral reefs worldwide.

Every year, exploration will take place in these three areas over the next three years to explore and identify the impacts of climate change and other processes. The number of coral reef species grows in proportion to the size of the body, in which the bacteria grow most strongly and larger animals like corals or fish have the smallest amount.

Dr Caley said: 'We were all surprised and delighted to find that many of the previously unknown sea creatures in the sea can easily dive frequently, mainly are soft corals, cuckoo, tanaid and deep crustaceans '.

'If we bring our knowledge of marine life to comparison with what we don't know, it is like taking a drop of water compared to the ocean. Large inventory of diversity with the abundance of life in the underwater kingdom poses a great challenge for both science and imagination '.

The first inventory of soft corals in Barrier coral

The expedition marked the first soft coral survey, named octocoral with 8 tentacles surrounding a polyp.

Researchers believe that about one-third to half of the hundreds of soft corals found are new species.

While these colorful creatures do not constitute coral reefs, they settle in some of the studied areas, covering about 25% of the seabed. They are also important habitats for other species. The addition of about 150 new soft corals is probably the source of great knowledge about this group of organisms. Although they are widely distributed across the globe, what we understand about them has the least amount.

Despite the discovery of a large number of new species, Dr. Caley believes there are still many new species to be discovered during the future expedition. DNA barcoding techniques will quickly promote new species identification processes in the future.