Project Overview
Coral reefs harbor the greatest marine biodiversity and are the most vulnerable marine
ecosystems to anthropogenic influences. Even the order of magnitude of reef biodiversity is
poorly known, yet eutrophication, overfishing, and global warming threaten the very existence of
reef ecosystems. Documenting reef biodiversity is thus of the utmost urgency, so that baseline
information becomes available about the diversity, distribution, and ecological roles of reef
biota, against which future changes can be compared, and management and conservation
decisions made. Sea cucumbers are among the most poorly known macrobiota on coral reefs, yet
the systematics of holothurians remain in a relatively poor state worldwide. Less than half of reef associated
species have been described, poorly understood species complexes and nonmonophyletic
higher taxa are pervasive, most holothuroid systematists are near or past retirement
age, and modern revisionary and phylogenetic methods entered the field only in the last five years.
Aspidochirotid holothuroids, the focus of this project, are under considerable direct threat as
well, as the multi-million dollar beche-de-mer industry wipes out population after population of
these slow-growing, large, K-strategist invertebrates.
The objective of this project is to greatly improve our understanding of
aspidochirotid holothuroids through large-scale, collaborative phylogenetic efforts, revisions, and
training. The PEET trainees and PIs will be part of a larger Aspidochirotid Working Group
(AWG), and will work collaboratively to unravel a much larger portion of aspidochirotid
diversity than would otherwise be possible. Three major groups (Stichopodidae, Bohadschia and
Actinopyga, comprising ca. 11 genera and 110 species) will be revised. A web site will be
developed to include a comprehensive database of all aspidochirotid names, copies of all original
descriptions and figures, updated synonymies and classification, species pages, interactive keys,
image libraries, GIS maps, and pdfs on holothuroid systematics. The AWG will collaborate on a
phylogenetic study of the order, including the development of a character matrix covering all
major taxa and acquisition of tissue samples of as many species of aspidochirotids as possible for
sequencing by the PIs lab. The resulting phylogenetic analyses of the order, focal groups, and
other taxa will be used to develop a robust classification and to explore a variety of hypotheses in
evolution, ecology, biogeography, and echinoderm biology. Specifically, phylogenies and
revisions will be used to address questions about major biotic transitions (tropical – temperate,
shallow – deep, off reef – reef), patterns of marine speciation, and the evolution of holothuroid
morphology and ecology. Three graduate students and several undergraduates will be trained, a
museum workshop, field-station-based training course, and a symposium organized.
Having a taxonomic understanding of the biota is essential foundation for work on the ecology, conservation, and management of megadiversity ecosystems like coral reefs. Understanding the species-level taxonomy of sea cucumbers will facilitate efforts to manage and conserve beche-de-mer fisheries, especially as several fished taxa are in unresolved species complexes. The project will lead to considerably international research collaboration and contribute to the training of a new generation of well-rounded, marine invertebrate systematists. The abundant photographic and other documentation on the web site will encourage amateur attention and study of these animals by the growing diver naturalist community. Finally the wide range of marine invertebrate taxa collected during proposed field surveys, and distributed to the international taxonomic community, will lead to substantial improvements in understanding the biodiversity of reef-associated invertebrates.
We propose to pursue this project on three broad levels:
1) capture, database, and make available online all aspidochirotid nomina and original
descriptions, and locate as many type specimens as possible;
2) complete monographic revisions of several taxa;
3) generate sequence and morphological character data for as many species as possible, and use
these to sort out species complexes and understand phylogenetic relationship.
