Biodiversity and Ecological Units of the Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems in San Andrés Island, SeaFlower Biosphere Reserve

• Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science 2020-11, Vol.7
• Main Authors: Chasqui, Luis, Mejía-Quintero, Katherine, González, Juan David
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abiotic factors; Algae; Biodiversity; Biosphere; Biota; Colombian Caribbean; Coral reefs; Corals; Data analysis; Datasets; ecological units; Fish; Genetic diversity; Genetic variation; Geographical distribution; Invertebrates; mesophotic coral ecosystems; Morphology; New species; San Andrés Island; Scuba diving; SeaFlower Biosphere Reserve; Southwestern Caribbean MCEs; Species richness; Sponges; Taxa
• ISSN: 2296-7745; 2296-7745
• DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2020.559273

More than half a thousand studies globally in MCE over the last three decades have yielded an important crop of new species (e.g., Appeldoorn et al., 2016; Pyle et al., 2016; but see Pyle and Copus, 2019), and greatly expanded scientific knowledge about coral reef biota in several aspects, since species richness and distribution in general (e.g., Laverick et al., 2018) until very specific issues such as the genetic diversity of coral holobionts (e.g., Gonzalez-Zapata et al., 2018a). The dataset contains the results of the exploration with Closed-Circuit Rebreather (CCR) technical diving in the upper mesophotic zone (30–70 m deep) at the western side (Leeward) of the Island, where the ecological units Octocorals-Sponges-Mixed corals and Agaricia spp.-Mixed corals have been proposed, and includes taxonomic information for 160 species recorded (algae, invertebrates and fishes), collection codes for several collected specimens (corals), and relative abundances for the observed fish species. Afterward, data on the conspicuous taxa (octocoral, black coral, sponges, scleractinian at the genus level when possible, algae) and abiotic components of the sea bottom were taken by overlapping an 8 x 8 grid on the frame and choosing 6 quadrants (off 64) with random numbers. [...]with the number of quadrants percentages for each different taxa or abiotic feature (sand, coral rock, gap, undetermined) for each depth interval were obtained.