Marine Biodiversity in the Caribbean: Regional Estimates and Distribution Patterns

This paper provides an analysis of the distribution patterns of marine biodiversity and summarizes the major activities of the Census of Marine Life program in the Caribbean region. The coastal Caribbean region is a large marine ecosystem (LME) characterized by coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrasses, but including other environments, such as sandy beaches and rocky shores. These tropical ecosystems incorporate a high diversity of associated flora and fauna, and the nations that border the Caribbean collectively encompass a major global marine biodiversity hot spot. We analyze the state of knowledge of marine biodiversity based on the geographic distribution of georeferenced species records and regional taxonomic lists. A total of 12,046 marine species are reported in this paper for the Caribbean region. These include representatives from 31 animal phyla, two plant phyla, one group of Chromista, and three groups of Protoctista. Sampling effort has been greatest in shallow, nearshore waters, where there is relatively good coverage of species records; offshore and deep environments have been less studied. Additionally, we found that the currently accepted classification of marine ecoregions of the Caribbean did not apply for the benthic distributions of five relatively well known taxonomic groups. Coastal species richness tends to concentrate along the Antillean arc (Cuba to the southernmost Antilles) and the northern coast of South America (Venezuela – Colombia), while no pattern can be observed in the deep sea with the available data. Several factors make it impossible to determine the extent to which these distribution patterns accurately reflect the true situation for marine biodiversity in general: (1) highly localized concentrations of collecting effort and a lack of collecting in many areas and ecosystems, (2) high variability among collecting methods, (3) limited taxonomic expertise for many groups, and (4) differing levels of activity in the study of different taxa

The Neogene tropical America fish assemblage and the paleobiogeography of the Caribbean region

This first analysis of the marine fish fossil record in the Caribbean region during the Neogene is based on comprehensive new faunal compilation lists at the generic level from basins of nine Central and South American countries during Miocene and Pliocene times. Joint ordination and classification techniques were used to analyze data comprising 236 genera and 346 species. Principal Component Analyses were used to calculate covariance and variance between localities. We identified four subprovinces, representing four different patterns. The subprovince of Venezuela shows distinct and unique features since the Neogene in the diversity of ecosystems represented. The Antillean subprovince has a western orientation and is composed of Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and the Trinidad islands. The third subprovince combines Panama and Ecuador. It reflects the Pacific faunal influence into the proto-Caribbean and a characteristic benthopelagic fauna. The fourth subprovince is Costarican. Its nektonic fish fauna reflects the overprinting impact over the proto-Caribbean fish fauna mostly due to local paleoenvironmental changes (neritic, estuarine and deep water assemblages), whereby the overall composition of genera is largely not affected (except few lamnids, such as the giant-toothed white sharks and the wide-toothed mako shark). The results of the analyses are concordant with previous ones based on invertebrates and identified regions in need of study (e.g., Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Brazil)