World List of Octocorallia

Cairns, S.D. (2007). Deep-water corals: an overview with special reference to diversity and distribution of deep-water scleractinian corals. Bulletin of Marine Science. 81: 311–322.

334638

Cairns, S.D.

2007

81: 311–322

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The polyphyletic term coral is defined as those Cnidaria having continuous or dis- continuous calcium carbonate or horn-like skeletal elements. So defined, the group consists of seven taxa (Scleractinia, Antipatharia, Octocorallia, Stylasteridae, and Milleporidae, two zoanthids, and three calcified hydractiniids) constituting about 5080 species, 66% of which occur in water deeper than 50 m, i.e., deep water as defined in this paper. Although the number of newly described species of deep- water scleractinian corals appears to be increasing at an exponential rate, it is sug- gested that this rate will plateau in the near future. The majority of azooxanthellate Scleractinia is solitary in form, firmly attached to a substrate, most abundant at 200–1000 m, and consist of caryophylliids. Literature helpful for the identification of deep-water Scleractinia is listed according to 16 geographic regions of the world. A species diversity contour map is presented for the azooxanthellate scleractinian species, showing centers of high diversity in the philippine region, the western At- lantic Antilles, and the northwest Indian Ocean, and is remarkably similar to high diversity regions for shallow-water zooxanthellate Scleractinia. As suggested for shallow-water corals, the cause for the high diversity of deep-water scleractinian diversity is thought to be the result of the availability of large contiguous stable substrate, in the case of deep-water corals at depths of 200–1000 m (the area effect), whereas regions of low biodiversity appear to be correlated with a shallow depth of the aragonite saturation horizon.

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