Marine Biodiversity in the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of South America: Knowledge and Gaps

MILOSLAVICH, PATRICIA; KLEIN, EDUARDO; DIAZ, JUAN M.; HERNÁNDEZ, CRISTIÁN E.; BIGATTI, GREGORIO; CAMPOS, LUCIA; ARTIGAS, FELIPE; CASTILLO, JULIO; PENCHASZADEH, PABLO E.; NEILL, PAULA E.; CARRANZA, ALVAR; RETANA, MARÍA V.; DIAZ DE ASTARLOA, JUAN M.; LEWIS, MIRTHA; YORIO, PABLO; PIRIZ, MARÍA L.; RODRÍGUEZ, DIEGO; YONESHIGUE-VALENTIN, YOCIE; GAMBOA, LUIZ; MARTÍN, ALBERTO

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Año: 2011 vol. 6 p. 1 - 43

1932-6203

The marine areas of South America include almost 30,000 km of coastline and encompass three different oceanic domains -the Caribean, the Pacific, and the Atlantic– ranging in latitude from 12° N to 55° S. The 10 countries that border these coasts have different research capabilities and taxonomic traditions that affect taxonomic knowledge. This paper analyzes the status of knowledge of marine biodiversity in five subregions along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America (SA): the Tropical East Pacific, the Humboldt Current, the Patagonian  Shelf, the Brazilian Shelves and the Tropical West Atlantic  and it provides an updated review of ecosystem threats and regional marine conservation strategies. South American marine biodiversity is least well known in the tropical East Pacific (with the exception of Costa Rica and Panama) and the Tropical West Atlantic, although the latter subregion is the most diverse when the total number of species is standardized by coastal length (with nearly 150 species per 100 km of coast). Differences in total biodiversity were observed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at the same latitude. In the north of the continent, the Tropical East Pacific is richer in species than the Tropical West Atlantic, however, when standardized by coast length, there is very little difference among them. In the south the Humboldt Current system is much richer than the Patagonian Shelf. An analysis of endemism within regions of SA and also of SA endemism within a global context using the Ocean and Biogeographic Information system data base is presented. About 75% of the species are reported within only one of the SA regions, and about 22% of the species of SA are not reported elsewhere in the world. National and regional initiatives focusing on new exploration, especially to unknown areas and ecosystems, as well as collaboration among countries are fundamental to achieving the goal of completing inventories of species diversity and distribution. These inventories will allow accurate interpretation of the biogeography of its two oceanic coasts and latitudinal trends, and will also provide relevant information for science based policies.