26 February 2004
Corals across the oceans
Corals and coral reefs are of high conservation priority because of their diversity and their decline due to human activities. Coral reefs in the Atlantic are particularly threatened, with recent estimates of an 80% decline over the past 30 years. It had been assumed that these reefs are of lesser importance than those of the Pacific because they have many fewer species and no endemic families. But Fukami et al. now raise doubts over this assumption, arising from the possibility that conventional taxonomy may have underestimated the phylogenetic distinctiveness of Atlantic corals. In fact many of the most important Atlantic reef-builders belong to ancient lineages that occur only in the Atlantic, and these corals could be eliminated if present trends continue.
Conventional taxonomy obscures deep divergence
between Pacific and Atlantic corals
HIRONOBU FUKAMI, ANN F. BUDD, GUSTAV PAULAY, ANTONIO
SOLÉ-CAVA, CHAOLUN ALLEN CHEN, KENJI IWAO & NANCY KNOWLTON
Nature 427, 832–835 (2004); doi:10.1038/nature02339
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