Publications:
Montgomery et al. 2019


scientific article | Zookeys | open access

Annotated checklist for stony corals of American Sāmoa with reference to mesophotic depth records

Montgomery AD, Fenner D, Toonen RJ


Abstract

An annotated checklist of the stony corals (Scleractinia, Milleporidae, Stylasteridae, and Helioporidae) of American Sāmoa is presented. A total of 377 valid species has been reported from American Sāmoa with 342 species considered either present (251) or possibly present (91). Of these 342 species, 66 have a recorded geographical range extension and 90 have been reported from mesophotic depths (30–150 m). Additionally, four new species records (Acanthastrea subechinata Veron, 2000, Favites paraflexuosus Veron, 2000, Echinophyllia echinoporoides Veron & Pichon, 1980, Turbinaria irregularis Bernard, 1896) are presented. Coral species of concern include species listed under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species. Approximately 17.5% of the species present or possibly present are categorized as threatened by IUCN compared to 27% of the species globally. American Sāmoa has seven ESA-listed or ESA candidate species, including Acropora globiceps (Dana, 1846), Acropora jacquelineae Wallace, 1994, Acropora retusa (Dana, 1846), Acropora speciosa (Quelch, 1886), Fimbriaphyllia paradivisa (Veron, 1990), Isopora crateriformis (Gardiner, 1898), and Pocillopora meandrina Dana, 1846. There are two additional species possibly present, i.e., Pavona diffluens (Lamarck, 1816) and Porites napopora Veron, 2000.

Keywords
Meta-data
Depth range
30- 53 m

Mesophotic “mentions”
199 x (total of 53530 words)

Classification
* Focused on 'mesophotic' depth range
* Focused on 'mesophotic coral ecosystem'

Fields
Management and Conservation
Biodiversity

Focusgroups
Hydrozoa
Octocorallia (Soft Corals)
Scleractinia (Hard Corals)

Locations
American Samoa

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