Dennis P. Gordon NIWA

Mark Costello Auckland University

Edward Vanden Berghe Rutgers University

Oceans of Biodiversity Remain Unknown –

New Zealand and the

Global Ocean

The New Zealand EEZ

• >4 million km2

• long history of

geological

isolation

• huge diversity

of seafloor

features

How many marine species in New Zealand?

Described Known Estimated species undescribed undiscovered

Protozoa, fungi, algae, plants 3,000 165 ?? Invertebrates 8,287 3,210 ?? Vertebrates 1,254 170 690

TOTALS 12,541 3,545 ~40,000−50,000

i.e. species known 16,086; yet to be described >40,000−50,000

At the present rate of new species descriptions (~100 / y) it will take minimally 400−500 years to complete the task of inventorying New Zealand’s marine biota.

The uncertainty concerning estimated undiscovered species centres on parasitic and commensal organisms plus free-living nematodes (roundworms).

Bacteria excluded!

                                                                                                                                                                     

Superkingdom PROKARYOTA

Cyanobacteria named species 40

Other prokaryotes named genera 39

Photos: NIWAPhotos: NIWA andJon Waterbury WHOI(www.whoi.edu)

Kingdom PROTOZOA 9/12 phyla

Amoebozoa 2

Apusozoa 1

Cercozoa 14

Choanozoa 19

Ciliophora 75

Euglenozoa 16

Foraminifera 1076

Myzozoa 243

Radiozoa 181

TOTAL 1627

# species

Kingdom CHROMISTA 6/6 phyla

# species

Bigyra 1

Heliozoa 1

Cryptista 9

Haptophyta 78

Ochrophyta 757

Sagenista 9

Total 855

Kingdom PLANTAE 3/6 phyla

# species

Rhodophyta 478

Chlorophyta 142

Tracheophyta 6

Total 626

gKingdom FUNGI

Total 57

# species

Kingdom ANIMALIA — 29/33 phyla

Porifera 683Placozoa 0Cnidaria 1113Ctenophora 19Platyhelminthes 323Dicyemida 6Gastrotricha 4Gnathifera 44Cycliophora 0Mollusca 3664Brachiopoda 35Phoronida 3Bryozoa 950Entoprocta 12 Sipuncula 26Echiura 6Annelida 789Nemertea 62

# species

Chaetognatha 15Tardigrada 5Onychophora 0Arthropoda 2819Kinorhyncha 17Loricifera 1Priapulida 3 Nematoda 167Nematomorpha 1Xenoturbellida 0Echinodermata 531Hemichordata 6Tunicata 192 Chordata 1425

TOTAL 12,921

# species

Photos: NIWA & NORFANZ

Porifera 1640 289 683Cnidaria 1316 842 1113Ctenophora 38 11 19Platyhelminthes 2484 58 323Gnathifera 201 2 44Mollusca 3798 3062 3664Brachiopoda 18 31 35Bryozoa 760 280 950Sipuncula 44 47 26 Annelida 2073 767 789Nemertea 429 17 62 Echinodermata 651 410 531Tunicata 481 220 192Chordata 1490 2272 1425Arthropoda 7426 2457 2819Kinorhyncha 40 1 17 Nematoda 2110 358 167All other groups 511 68 62

TOTALS 25,510 11,192 12,921

ERMS South New region Africa Zealand

Diversity of Marine Animalia Photos: NIWA & NORFANZ

ERMS area ~5.5 x greater than New Zealand EEZ but only 1.97 x as many marine Animalia

European Register of

Marine Species

ERMS area

21 762 258 km2

NZ EEZ area

4 053 049 km2

GOZOCOMINO

MALTA

Spirits Bay – New Zealand’s marine-biodiversity hotspot

THREE KINGS ISLANDS

*

UK/Ireland EEZsMediterranean SeaThree Kings Shelf, NZ

Have equivalent numbers of bryozoan species

The coral-reef ecosystem — the most speciose marine biome.

After Veron, 1995

Panglao >5000

Espiritu Santo ~3500

Rapa 530New Caledonia 3001

New Zealand EEZ3664

ERMS3738

South African EEZ3062

Southern Ocean690

Diversity of molluscan species

Australian EEZ~5000

Contours based on Scleractinia

Base map courtesy of Philippe Bouchet, MNHN

Estimates of described marine species (all

kingdoms)

• Winston 1992

• May 1994

• Van der Land 1994

• Reaka-Kudla 1996

• Gordon 2003

• Bouchet 2006

250,000

500,000

150,000

274,000

230,000

230,000

Courtesy Mark Costello & Philippe Bouchet

Global species diversity (all kingdoms)

Global species and marine diversity (all kingdoms)

Rate of discovery of marine species in European seas

• Many new species to be discovered in best-known seas

• Species-rich taxa are the least known

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

1750 1850 1950

Year

How many unknown species in European seas?

• ERMS • 29,700 listed

• 6,500 species not yet added

• 36,200 known species

• Statistical model* predicts• 5,000 to 20,000 species to be described

• i.e. 16% to 67%

• hence 41,000-56,000 species in European seas

* Wilson, S. P. and Costello, M.J. 2005. Predicting future discoveries of European marine species by using a non-

homogeneous renewal process. Applied Statistics 54: 897-918.

So how many marine species?

Europe World

Known 36,200 230,000

Unknown 5,000 - 20,000 1.17-1.37 million

% unknown 16 – 67 % c. 84-86%

Total 41,000 - 56,000 1.4-1.6 million*

*Bouchet 2006

0 100 200 300 400 500

"Algae"

Protozoa

Fungi

Porifera

Cnidaria

Platyhelminthes

Nemertea

Nematoda

Mollusca

Annelida

Crustacea

Bryozoa

Echinodermata

Tunicata

Other Invertebrates

Pisces

Cetacea

89

63

4

40

76

90

9

21

354

439

30

21

27

64

121

1

TOTAL : 1555

Descriptions of new marine species, 2002–03 (not bacteria)

Data from Phillipe Bouchet MNHN

1,170,000 ÷ 1,555 = 752 years

1,370,000 ÷ 1,555 = 881 years

However

• Still have not described enough species for most species-rich taxa to predict “unknown.”

• Need understand more about spatial and habitat-related diversity in order to make projections.

• But CoML deep-sea projects may fill these gaps.

A role for OBIS here –using data on >80,000 species (representing distribution at >13 million ocean localities) from >230 databases via www.iobis.org

Geographical gaps in OBIS increase with depth −

All data (all depths) in 5 degree squares, November 2007: Red = highest density of sampling; blue lowest; white = no data. If sampling density were equally high everywhere, most of the map would be red.

>100 metres

>500 metres

>1000 metres

> 2500 metres

Global pattern of sampling effort

Red is more, blue less, white is no data.

Pattern in number of species in OBIS

Observed number of species in each square correlates with sampling density.

Red is more, blue less, white is no data.

Species richness in OBIS corrected for sampling bias

Using ES(50) index = expected number of species in a random sample of 50 specimens from each 5 x 5 degree square. Blanks are squares where fewer than 50 “items” have been found; even a crude biodiversity estimate is not possible.

Red is more, blue less, white is no data.

Balaenoptera omurai Wada et al. 200312 m long

Ostreococcus tauri Courties & Chrétiennot-Dinet, 19951 µm diameter

Smallest known eukaryote

?

?

Applying taxonomic biodiscove

ry

Scientific needs Sustainable management Biosecurity Biotechnology Conservation Climate change International responsibilities

The Census of Marine Life

addresses all of these

concerns.

Acknowledgments

• The visionaries who promoted CoML and OBIS

• FRST Contract C01X0502

• Photographers Tracy Farr, Malcolm Francis, Svenja Heesch, Els Maas, Wendy Nelson, and Geoff Read (NIWA)

• Dr Philippe Bouchet, MNHN, Paris

• Cytographics [www.cytographics.com]

• NZ Plant Conservation Network (Jeremy Rolf photographer) [www.nzpcn.org.nz]

• Protist Image Data (Charles J. O’Kelly & Tim Littlejohn ©1994-2004) [http://megasun.bch.umontreal.ca/protists/gallery/html]

• Protist Image Galleries [http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/PDB/Galleries/indexE.html]

• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (John Waterbury) [www.whoi.edu]

• Zoosporic Fungi Online [www.botany.uga.edu/zoosporicfungi]