Seven persons were asked to discuss the diversity and biogeography of various
groups of marine organisms from as wide a geographic span as possible in the
warm Pacific. The organisms covered were marine algae, marine mollusks, and
fishes; unfortunately, J. E. N. Veron of Australia, who was expected to speak
on corals, was unable to attend. We present here three abstracts and three
full-length papers. No symposium on marine diversity has ever been presented
to the Congress, although each member country in the Congress is impacted by
one or more oceans or seas. Of the major groups of marine organisms, probably
the least studied (and least understood) are the marine algae. The three papers
are on algae and show different perspectives although the subject matter is
systematics and ecology. In "Geographic patterns of diversity in benthic marine
algae," Paul Silva defines diversity and shows that although land plant diversity
is greater in the tropics, marine algae show more diversity in the warm-temperate
boundaries. In "Marine phytogeography of the Juan Fernandez Archipelago: A
new assessment," Bernabe Santelices shows that the relatively high diversity with
32% endemism found in the Juan Fernandez Islands is largely due to the physical
barrier of the cold northward-flowing Peru or Humboldt Current. Celia Smith
in "Diversity in intertidal habitats: An assessment of the marine algae of select
high islands in the Hawaiian Archipelago" revealed many data that furnished
the bases for far-reaching comparisons: age-related basalt substrates and
limestone benches on an island about 35,000 yr old yielded a flora with greater
diversity than similar transects on a younger basalt island, contributing to the
conclusion that similar diversity patterns appear to depend on substrate
similarity as well as current patterns around islands.
The three abstracts cover algae from French Polynesia, fishes, and marine
mollusks. The papers that stem from these abstracts have been or are being
published elsewhere
