Biodiversity of marine zooplankton in Southeast Asia (Project-3: Plankton Group) Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Biodiversity of marine zooplankton in Southeast Asia
(Project-3: Plankton Group)
Shuhei Nishida and Jun Nishikawa
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo,
5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa 277-8564, Japan
Introduction
The ocean occupies more than 95% of the
volume of biosphere on Earth. There is a
wealth of diversity in ocean life, but we
know only a small portion of it. Among
others, zooplankton are distributed in any
pelagic habitats in the sea, from coasts to
offshore waters, and from the sea surface
to the abyssal depths. Many of them are
known to play important roles in marine
ecosystems, including those in the food
chain and matter transfer, but there are also
many species whose distribution and ecology are mostly unknown.
Southeast Asia is known as the center
of marine biodiversity in the world, and
this is referable to several unique settings
of this region. First, the area has the
Tethyan origin, which dates back to ca. 200
million years ago. It also has complex geologic history, including eustatic sea-level
changes during the glacial- and inter-glacial periods, and frequent continental fusion and fission events through its geologic
history. These resulted in the presence of
many island chains and marginal seas,
some of which have semi-enclosed deep
basins, such as Sulu and Celebes Seas (e.g.
Fleminger 1986).
A large body of knowledge has accumulated on the high species diversity of
marine fauna in this region. To pick up a
few: there are more than 550 species of
pelagic copepods known in this small region, accounting for one fourth of those
known in the world; the MUSORSTOM
Expedition, which aimed at re-discovering
the primitive decapods “Neoglyhphaea”,
resulted in records of >600 species of
macrobenthos and demersal fishes as a
biproduct, including discovery of more
than 80 new species from the very narrow
shelf in the northeastern Sulu Sea (e.g.
Forest 1989); more recently, there was also
the famous discovery of the coelacanth
Latimeria menadoensis from near Manado,
Sulawesi in 1998 (Pouyaud et al. 1999).
All these indicate the ancient nature of the
fauna, the extremely high species diversity in this area, and potential diversity of
species still waiting for our investigation.
However, the area has also been identified as a serious hotspot of biodiversity
crisis owing to various human activities,
such as: eutrophication, pollution by hazardous chemicals, destruction of habitats
such as coral reefs, mangrove forests, and
S. Nishida, M. D. Fortes and N. Miyazaki, eds.
Coastal Marine Science in Southeast Asia —Synthesis Report of the Core University Program of the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science: Coastal Marine Science (2001–2010), pp. 59–71.
© by TERRAPUB 2011.
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Table 1.
AND
J. NISHIKAWA
List of members of the Plankton Group.
Country
Name
Affiliation
Indonesia
Indonesia
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Japan
Malaysia
Malaysia
Philippines
Philippines
Philippines
Thailand
Thailand
Thailand
Vietnam
Vietnam
Mulyadi
Inneke FM Rumengan
Susumu Ohtsuka
Nozomu Iwasaki
Tomohiko Kikuchi
Shozo Sawamoto
Hideo Sekiguchi
Shuhei Nishida
Jun Nishikawa
Makoto Terazaki
Tatsuki Toda
BH Ross Othman
Fatimah Md Yusoff
Wilfredo L Campos
Lourdes V Castillo*
Ephrime B Metillo
Khwanruan Srinui (Pinkaew)
Ajcharaporn Piunsumboon
Suree Satapoomin
Nguyen Cho
Nguyen Thi Thu
Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences
Sam Raturangi University
Hiroshima University
Kochi University
Yokohama National Uni versity
Tokai University
Mie University
The University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo
Soka University
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Universiti Putra Malaysia
University of the Philippines Visayas
University of the Philippines Los Bañ os
Mindanao State University
Burapha University
Chulalongkorn University
Phuket Marine Biological Center
Institute of Oceanography, Nha Trang
Institute of Marine Environment and Resources
*Deceased
seagrass beds, and overfishing.
Under this circumstance, we have conducted researches into the biodiversity of
zooplankton in Southeast Asia, as one of
the field research projects of the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science
(JSPS) on Coastal Marine Science during
the years 2001–2010. We have also cooperated with the Census of Marine
Zooplankton (CMarZ), a field project of
the Census of Marine Life (CoML). This
is being done with the multilateral cooperation of Japan and five countries in this
region: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Philippines, and Vietnam.
Research Planning
The research on zooplankton in the present
program was initially planned during the
“Workshop on the Biodiversity Studies in
the Coastal Waters of the East and Southeast Asia” held at Lankawi Island, October 2002, following preparatory communication among researchers in the six col-
laborating countries. It was agreed that
Plankton-Group comprises two core members from each Southeast Asian country,
as a general rule, and Japanese collaborators specializing in major zooplankton
taxa, resulting in the collaborators as listed
in Table 1 (see Appendix-1 for details).
The objectives of our research were:
establishing past- and present status of
zooplankton communities; elucidating
mechanisms of generation/maintenance of
biodiversity; elucidating functional role of
biodiversity; and predicting the future of
the marine ecosystems in this region. We
have approached the last objective
through: utilization of historical sample
collections; training courses on methods
of ecology and identification; fulfilling
basic knowledge of biodiversity at species/
community levels; utilization of genetic
tools for biodiversity analysis; and establishing databases.
The sites for general and/or specific
field researches are indicated in Fig. 1, including sites for general assessment of
Biodiversity of marine zooplankton in Southeast Asia
Fig. 1.
61
Research sites of the Plankton Group in the JSPS-CMS Program.
zooplankton abundance and species composition, and those for taxonomic and
faunal studies with a larger geographic
coverage. There are also sites for trophicstructure studies of coral and seagrass
communities, including zooplankton, and
deep marginal basins such as the Sulu,
Celebes, and South China Seas.
As an essential strategic aspect, the
core members were encouraged to seek and
obtain research funds from their domestic
sources for practical field research and
analysis, since the support from the present
project has been limited mainly to travel
and meeting expenses. This appears to
have been relatively well done, resulting
in collaboration with various field projects,
either domestic or bilateral-type, as referred to in the following sections. It was
also essential to consider differences
among collaborating countries in research
expertise, needs of countries, and funding
circumstances. This led to our basic strategy to put some flexibility in research planning in each country, in terms of, e.g., selection of research sites and seasons, sampling gears, and focal taxonomic groups,
which appears to have been a good choice
for realistic collaboration.
Discovery of New Species
Particular efforts have been paid to areas
that we call “the hotspots”, where there
have been few studies due to logistical and/
or technical difficulties. Hence, a comprehensive research has been conducted in
major biodiversity hotspots such as
embayed waters, coastal areas and marginal-seas of Southeast Asia, which have
very complicated geography and geologic
history. This resulted in the discovery of
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J. NISHIKAWA
Table 2. List of new species of copepods, amphipods, and isopods described during the JSPSCMS Program by project members and collaborators. Sampling localities are also shown. “n.
gen.” and “n. fam.” in parentheses indicate that the species also represent new genus and new
family, respectively.
Copepoda (holoplankton): 30 spp. (16 papers)
Macandrewella stygiana Ohtsuka, Nishida & Nakaguchi, 2002; Okinawa
Macandrewella omorii Ohtsuk a, Nishida & Nakaguchi, 2002; Okinawa
Macandrewella serratipes Ohtsuka, Nishida & Nakaguchi, 2002; Okinawa
Pontella bonei Mulyadi, 2003; Indonesia
Pontella kleini Mulyadi, 2003; Indonesia
Pontella vervoorti Mulyadi, 2003; Indonesia
Neoscolecithrix japonica Ohtsuka, Boxshall & Fosshagen, 2003; Okinawa
Scutogerulus boettgerschnacken Ohtsuka & Boxshall, 2004; Okinawa
Pseudodiaptomus sulawesiensis Nishida & Rumengan, 2005; Sulawesi
Tortanus vietnamicus Nishida & Cho, 2005; Vietnam
Metacalanalis hakuhoae Ohtsuka, Nishida & Machida, 2005; Sulu Sea (n. gen.)
Protoparamisophria biforaminis Ohtsuka, Nishida & Machida, 2005; Sulu Sea (n. gen.)
Paraugaptiloides mirandipes Ohtsuka, Nishida & Machida, 2005; Sulu Sea
Sarsarietellus suluensis Ohtsuka, Nishida & Machida, 2005; Sulu Sea
Bradyetes pacificus Ohtsuka, Boxshall & Shimomura, 2005; Nansei Is.
Lutamator paradiseus Ohtsuka, Boxshall & Shimomura, 2005; Nansei Is.
Paracomantenna goi Ohtsuka, Boxshall & Shimomura, 2005; Nansei Is.
Centropages maigo Ohtsu ka, Itoh & Mizushima, 2005; Japan
Tortanus magnonyx Ohtsuka & Conway, 2005; Seychelles
Acartia (Odontacartia) ohtsukai Ueda & Bucklin, 2006; Japan
Pseudodiaptomus terazakii Walter, Ohtsuka & Castillo, 2006; Philippine
Apocyclops ramkhamhaengi Chullasorn, Kangtia, Pinkaew & Ferrari, 2008; Thailand
Kelleria indonesiana Mulyadi, 2009; Indonesia
Kelleria javaensis Mulyadi, 2009; Indonesia
Halicyclops ariakensis Ueda & Nagai, 2009; Japan
Halicyclops continentalis Ueda & Nagai, 2009; Japan
Halicyclops unc us Ueda & Nagai, 2009; Japan
Three un-described species of Pontellopsis from Indonesia to be published in 2011
Copepoda (meroplankton/parasite): 16 spp. (10 papers)
Hemicyclops tanakai Itoh & Nishida, 2002; Japan
Hemicyclops javaensis Mulyadi, 2005; Indonesia
Hemicyclops minutus Mulyadi, 2005; Indonesia
Neomysidion rahotsu Ohtsuka, Boxshall & Harada, 2005; Japan (n. gen.)
Umazuracola elongatus Ho, Ohtsuka & Nakadachi, 2006; Japan (n. fam.)
Dactylopusioides malleus Shimono, Iwasaki & Kawai, 2007; Japan
Maemonstrilla hyottoko Grygier & Ohtsuka, 2008; Okinawa (n. gen.)
Maemonstrilla okame Grygier & Ohtsuka, 2008; Okinawa
Maemonstrilla polka Grygier & Ohtsuka, 2008; Okinawa
Maemonstrilla simplex Grygier & Ohtsuka, 2008; Okinawa
Maemonstrilla spinicoxa Grygier & Ohtsuka, 2008; Okinawa
Thysanote chalermwati Piasecki, Ohtsuka & Yoshizaki, 2008; Thailand
Kensakia aiiroa Harris & Iwasaki, 2009; Malaysia
Kensakia shimodensis Harris & Iwasaki, 2009; Japan
Thalestris hokkaidoensis Takemori & Iwasaki, 2009; Japan
Parenterognathus troglodytes Ohtsuka, Kitazawa & Boxshall, 2010; Japan (n. gen.)
Amphipoda: 4 spp. (3 papers)
Talorchestia morinoi Othman & Azman, 2007; Malaysia
Listriella longipalma Othman & Morino, 2006; Malaysia
Ceradocus mizani Lim, Azman & Othman, 2010; Malaysia
Victoriopisa tinggiensis Lim, Azman & Othman, 2010; Malaysia
Isopoda
Metaphrixus setouchiensis Shimomura, Ohtsuka & Sakakihara, 2006; Japan
Prodajus curviabdominalis Shimomura, Ohtsuka & Naito, 2005; Japan
Biodiversity of marine zooplankton in Southeast Asia
63
Fig. 2. The copepod Tortanus vietnamicus, collected from a coral reef area in the middle of
Vietnam during a nighttime sampling. It is thought that this species has escaped from conventional sampling, since they hide behind corals in the daytime (modified from Nishida and Cho
2005).
many species new to science. This was
more-or-less predicted in the earliest stage
of the research, since taxonomic knowledge in this region had been largely based
on the results from historical expeditions,
and there were many types of habitats that
had received little attention in previous
researchers.
Through cooperation from members
and taxonomy experts who collaborated
with the project through our taxonomic
network, 29 planktonic copepods and 16
mero-planktonic or non-planktonic
copepods, 4 amphipods, and 2 isopods
have been described as new to science (Table 2, see Appendix-2 for references). In
addition, 37 species of mysids have been
described as new from Southeast Asia and
Japanese waters by experts collaborating
with the present project and CMarZ, both
from new field sampling and examination
of sample collections from previous research cruises. Accordingly, a total of ca.
90 new species have been described in 51
papers during the project. In addition, more
than 50 undescribed species are still waiting for our analysis and description. Many
of these species have been found from specific habitats that had been poorly investigated, such as estuaries, benthopelagic
zones, coral reefs and marginal basins, and
many of them are by no means “rare species”, sometimes comprising major components of zooplankton.
As an example, Tortanus (Atortus)
vietnamicus is a copepod discovered from
a coral reef area in the middle of Vietnam
(Fig. 2; Nishida and Cho 2005). They measure ca. 2 mm in total lengths, and are relatively large in size for copepods. They
were collected by towing a small net from
a pier at night. The copepods of this group,
from the subgenus Atortus, are known to
inhabit clear water and close to bottom
substrates or structures, such as corals, in
the daytime, and emerge up in the water
column at night. So, it is very important to
know the ecology and behavior of diverse
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S. N ISHIDA
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groups of zooplankton for a full coverage
of the fauna. A review of the geographic
distribution of this group indicated presence of more than 10 species in the IndoPacific Region (Nishida and Cho 2005).
They show a highly allopatric pattern of
geographic distribution, suggesting
speciation through isolation of populations
that might have been enhanced by the
eustatic sea level changes during the glacial-interglacial periods, which may have
resulted in the repeated emergence of both
land and deep-ocean barriers. Discovery
of many more species is expected through
finer geographic coverage of sampling.
These copepods would also be a good
model of allopatric speciation in coastal
areas (see, e.g. Fleminger 1986).
Coastal Habitats
The coastal waters in Southeast Asia are
characterized by the presence of highly
diverse habitats such as coral reefs, mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and sandy
beaches. To obtain basic information on the
current status of zooplankton communities,
their abundance and composition were
studied in these representative habitats in
the member countries (Fig. 1). These include the coastal waters in Vietnam (e.g.
Thu 2005, Cho and Trinh 2006, 2008), the
Straits of Malacca (e.g. Rezai et al. 2005,
2009, Yoshida et al. 2006), the Gulf of
Thailand (e.g. Pinkaew 2003, Srinui 2007),
the Philippine waters (e.g. copepods, fish
larvae, and chaetognaths: Noblezada et al.
2004, Campos and Santillan 2005,
Noblezada and Campos 2008), and the Indonesian waters (e.g. calanoid copepods:
Mulyadi 2004, 2006). These data have
been assessed for quality by expert members and incorporated into the database of
the project (CMarZ-Asia Database, Fig. 4)
for integration in the assessment of the
current status of zooplankton biodiversity.
Although the inventory of zooplankton
species are still in preparation, the taxo-
J. NISHIKAWA
nomic literature on mysids, one of the most
species-rich groups of zooplankton in
Southeast Asia, have been fully catalogued
(Sawamoto and Fukuoka 2005) with a total of 191 species reported from this region. As a matter of particular attention,
an integrative, multidisciplinary research
on coral reef ecosystems has been conducted in cooperation with the bilateral
project between JSPS and VCC (Vice
Counselor’s Committee), Malaysia. This
was the first comprehensive research on
the coral reef systems in Malaysia, encompassing islands and coasts in both eastern
and western sides of Peninsular Malaysia,
resulting in a number of papers, e.g., the
stable-isotope study on food-web structure
(e.g. Iwasaki et al. 2004), the community
structure and health condition of coral
reefs (Toda et al. 2007), abundance, composition and spatio-temporal variability of
zooplankton (e.g. Nakajima et al. 2009a),
and potential importance of coral mucus
and dissolved organic matter (e.g.
Nakajima et al. 2009b).
Marginal Basins:
Sulu, Celebes and South China Seas
Comprising another set of habitats in
Southeast Asia where research had been
wanting, we investigated the Sulu and
Celebes Seas, which have highly contrasting geographic features. Both basins are
fairly deep with depths of more than 5000
m; the Sulu Sea is semi-enclosed with surrounding sills less than 420 m deep, mostly
shallower than 200 m, hence the water
exchange with outside is mostly limited to
the epipelagic zone, while the Celebes Sea
is less enclosed and with more typical
open-oceanic conditions. The most striking oceanographic feature in the Sulu Sea
is its highly homogenous water structure
in meso- and bathypelagic zones, with high
temperature of ca. 10°C from ca. 600 m
through to the sea bottom of ca. 5000 m.
Similar conditions of homogenous, high-
Biodiversity of marine zooplankton in Southeast Asia
temperature deep water have also been
known in the Mediterranean and the Red
Sea (e.g. Scotto di Carlo et al. 1984). We
investigated these seas during the two
cruises of the R/V Hakuho Maru, and compared the species diversity and community
structure of meso-zooplankton between
them, using a MOCNESS-1 as a main sampling device (Johnson et al. 2006,
Nishikawa et al. 2007, Matsuura et al.
2010, Machida and Nishida 2010).
Contrary to our expectation, there were
no significant differences between the vertical patterns either in the total zooplankton
abundance and biomass and in composition at higher taxonomic levels, such as
copepods, chaetognaths, and cnidarians.
Focusing on copepods, the most dominant
group of zooplankton, the calanoids dominated in both seas, which is a general feature in pelagic communities, and again
there was no significant difference in the
order-level community structure between
the seas. However, analyses at the families/species level revealed totally different
features (Nishikawa et al. 2007, Nishikawa
unpublished data). First, a total of 359 species were identified from the seas. This
accounts for >15% of all known pelagic
copepods, indicating fairly high species
richness in this narrow area. Second, compared to the 314 species from the Celebes
Sea, only 217 species were found from the
Sulu Sea, accounting for 2/3 of the former.
The vertical patterns of species richness
clearly indicate that the reduction in the
Sulu Sea is due to those in the mesopelagic
zone. An analysis of the community structure at the species level also indicated
marked differences in the mesopelagic
zone between the two seas as compared
with the epipelagic zone. It is also noted
that the Sulu Sea is another source of species discovery. So far a total of 10 new or
undescribed species have been found from
the mesopelagic or benthopelagic zones
only of the Sulu Sea (Ohtsuka et al. 2005,
Nishikawa, unpublished data), suggesting
65
presence of species endemic to the Sulu
Sea, inviting further research into the surrounding waters.
In summary, the zooplankton diversity
in these marginal seas are characterized by:
(1) high species richness in the Celebes
Sea; (2) reduced species richness in the
Sulu Sea; and (3) different community
structure in the deep water between the
seas. We hypothesize that semi-enclosed
marginal basins are other sites of
speciation; the stable environmental gradients in the mesopelagic layer in the
Celebes Sea may be an important factor
for the observed high species richness; the
semi-enclosed, warm, homogenous deep
water in the Sulu Sea might have eliminated many species, allowed endemic species to evolve, and fewer species occupied
broader niches as compared to the Celebes
Sea. These views will give insights into our
understanding of the mechanisms of
speciation and species co-existence in the
pelagic habitats.
Jellyfish Fisheries and Jellyfish Fauna
in Southeast Asia
Jellyfish are one of the rare marine
zooplankton that have been commercially
exploited by humans for food. According
to the FAO statistics, global jellyfish catch
increased from 1970 to 2000, and it
reached 3–5 × 105 Mt after 2000. At least
8 species of jellyfishes belonging to the
order Rhizostomeae, class Scyphozoa, are
known to be harvested in Southeast Asia.
However, detailed information, such as
target species, collection and processing
methods, and the derived income of fishermen and the processing company, is not
well known in most of the fishing grounds.
Moreover, biological and ecological aspects of those large jellyfish are rarely
studied in spite of their quantitative importance in the local coastal marine ecosystems.
Since 2005, we have started the inves-
66
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J. NISHIKAWA
THAILAND
A
B
Fig. 3. A: Locations of the studied area for Jellyfish fisheries in Southeast Asia: Thanh Hoa in
Vietnam, Bagan Datoh in Malaysia, and Kebumen in Indonesia, Ang Sila and Sri Racha in Thailand (modified from Nishikawa et al. 2008). B: Fishing boat full of jellyfish; inset, targeted species Rhopilema hispidum (modified from Nishikawa et al. 2007).
tigations on the jellyfish fisheries (JF) at
several fishery grounds in Southeast Asian
countries, such as Vietnam, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Thailand, with the cooperation of local fishermen and fishery office
staff (Fig. 3). Information was gathered
from interview (with the owner of a jellyfish processing factory (JPF) and fishermen), sampling animals and other ecosystem constituents, and through reports of
fishery statistics. Here we outline the results of our JF research, parts of which
have been published in Nishikawa et al.
(2008, 2009).
In northern Vietnam, the harvesting
season begins in April and ends in May.
Two species, Rhopilema hispidum and R.
esculentum are confirmed as commercially
exploited, with the former species being
caught in much higher abundance than the
latter (Fig. 3B). Cyanea, Chrysaora,
Sanderia, and Aequorea were also caught,
but not used for processing. The number
of Rhopilema jellyfish collected by fishermen is estimated at 800,000–1,200,000
individuals per fishery season, suggesting
that the fishery can have an impact on jellyfish populations in the area. In Vietnam,
19 species belonging to 12 genera, 7 families and 3 orders of the class Scyphozoa
were identified. This species number is
more than two times higher than those previously known in Vietnam (9 species).
In Central Java, Indonesia, main fishing season of jellyfish is from August to
November. Main target species is
Crambionella sp. that appears to be new
to science. In Malaysia and unlike in most
of the fishery grounds, the JF is carried out
all year round at the Perak River estuary
in Bagan Datoh, Malaysia. The fishermen
set their fishing nets at the beginning of
both low and high tides, usually once or
twice a day. By utilizing the tidal current
that transports jellyfish into the nets, they
catch the jellyfish without towing them.
The main harvested species is Acromitus
hardenbergi, which is rarely collected in
other areas and its biology is little known.
Interestingly, Acromitus occurs abundantly
only in this river, not in neighboring rivers, and it appears to prefer brackish water environments. To understand the factors controlling its mass occurrence only
in the Perak River, research on its population dynamics, food habits, and trophic
structure is now ongoing.
Jellyfish fishery is also active in the
eastern Gulf of Thailand. High season for
the fishery corresponds to the SW
1.1
1.4
unknown
Salt, Alum
Salt, Alum, Calcium Hypochlorite
Salt, Alum, (Soda)
1.2
Salt, Alum, Soda
1.4
Bagan Datoh
Kukup
Kebumen
Malaysia
Malaysia
Indonesia
Thailand
Sri Racha, Ang Sila
All year
August−December
June−August
Than Hoa
Vietnam
All year
Rhopilema hispidum (main),
R. esculentum (rare)
Acromitus hardenbergi (main),
Rhopilema esculentum (rare),
Lobonema smithii (?) (rare)
Rhopilema hispidum
Crambionella sp.
Rhopilema hispidum (main),
Lobonema or Lobonemoides (rare)
April −May
Salt, Alum
Selling price to dealer*
(USD kg−1)
Chemicals used for processing
Target species
Fishing season
Area
Country
To assess the present status of the impact
of anthropogenic pollutants on ecosystems,
we investigated the coastal waters and
marginal seas of Southeast Asia and the
equatorial Pacific in collaboration with a
project supported by the JSPS Grant-in-aid
for Scientific Research (2004-06). The levels of pollutants were analyzed for various ecosystem components, including
pelagic- and benthic organisms, marine
snow, and bottom sediments with special
reference to the ecological properties of the
organisms, such as their vertical distributions and trophic levels.
Analysis of organotin compounds,
organochlorines and polybrominated
diphenyl ethers in the Sulu Sea revealed,
for the first time, that these compounds are
accumulated in the deep-sea animals in the
area, while their levels are lower than in
Comparison of jellyfish fisheries and processing methods in three sites in Southeast
Anthropogenic Pollutants in Coastaland Deep-Sea Ecosystems
Table 3.
Asia.
monsoon season, which probably transport
or accumulate jellyfish to the eastern
coastal area of the country. The gears used
for catching jellyfish are dip-nets and
hooks. The main harvested species is
Rhopilema hispidum.
Comparison of some aspects of the JF
in five sites in Southeast Asia is shown in
Table 3. It is interesting that the selling
price of processed jellyfish is very similar
between the fishery sites, 1.1–1.4 USD,
although the price of commodities in general are different between the countries.
We also investigated the symbionts on
jellyfish (Ohtsuka et al. 2009).
Scyphozoan jellyfishes harbored a wide
variety of invertebrates and fishes. Juveniles of benthic organisms such as crabs
and ophiuroids appear to be hitchhikers for
dispersal, while juvenile fish utilize jellyfish as refugia against visual predators.
Since edible jellyfish are associated with
many kinds of symbionts, the JF possibly
hinder recruitment of symbionts.
*Most popular price of the most popular products, i.e. swimming bell of most popular species. Currency conversions are 1 USD = 3.47 RM, 17800 VND and 33.3
THB, respectively.
67
Biodiversity of marine zooplankton in Southeast Asia
68
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AND
the other, more northern areas of the western Pacific (Ramu et al. 2006). An analysis of trace elements (TE) and stable isotope ratios of micronekton and fish in the
Sulu Sea and the adjacent Celebes and
Philippine Seas indicated high concentrations of Zn, Cu and Ag in non-migrant fish
in deep-water, in contrast to high Rb levels in fish which migrate up to the
epipelagic zone, probably resulting from
differences in background levels of these
TEs in each water environment or function of adaptation to deep-water by migrant
and non-migrant species. Arsenic level in
fish in the Sulu Sea was positively correlated
with
δ 15 N
indicating
biomagnification of the element (Asante
et al. 2010).
In an attempt to obtain basic information necessary to apply zooplankton as indicators of impact of anthropogenic pollutants, a series of experiments was conducted in collaboration with the Pollution
Group. It was indicated that the copepod
Apocyclops sp. from Sulawesi, Indonesia,
is highly sensitive to acute toxicity of
tributyltin, suggesting its potential usefulness in environmental assessment
(Rumengan et al. 2009).
Use of Genetic Markers in
Biodiversity Research
Genes, as well as morphology, provide
important information in understanding the
biodiversity of zooplankton. In addition to
the analyses of the relationships between
species and infra-specific genetic structure, genetic information is used in practical identification of species, such as those
in immature and/or damaged specimens.
In the present project, research was
conducted on the genetic aspects of
zooplankton biodiversity. We contributed
barcode data of ca. 120 species of
copepods and chaetognaths from the Asian
Region. There have also been much advancements in the re-evaluation of mor-
J. NISHIKAWA
phological taxonomy of copepods and
chaetognaths by using molecular markers
(Machida and Nishida 2010, Miyamoto et
al. 2010). Of particular importance in the
ecosystem functioning in the Asian Region
has been the identification of Calanus species by molecular markers (Nonomura et
al. 2008), as summarized below.
The copepods of the genus Calanus are
among the most important animals both in
abundance and biomass in zooplankton
communities and play important roles in
marine food chains and matter cycling. In
the East Asian waters including the coastal
waters of China and Japan, three species
are distributed: C. sinicus, C. pacificus,
and C. jashnovi. They are very similar in
shape, and identification of younger stages
of these species is almost impossible using morphology alone. For a better understanding of their life history, we applied
molecular markers to identify these
younger stages. By using three genetic regions as markers, we were able to distinguish the adults and immature copepodids
of these species. As a result, it was revealed
that the smaller and larger fifth copepodid
stages (CVs) of Calanus that are abundant
in the mesopelagic layer of Sagami Bay
correspond to C. sinicus and C. jashnovi,
respectively. The CVs of C. sinicus showed
a bimodal distribution, and the deep population was very abundant, which is comparable to its epipelagic population. This
and other life-history analyses with wider
seasonal and geographic coverage indicated that the CV of C. sinicus is a
diapausing stage and very widely distributed in the mesopelagic waters as south as
the continental slope in the East China Sea
during the seasons when the epipelagic
water is too hot for their survival.
CMarZ-Asia Database
Finally we introduce CMarZ-Asia Database (http://www.cmarz-asia.org/db/
index.html), which is a database estab-
Biodiversity of marine zooplankton in Southeast Asia
69
Fig. 4. An example of the species search using the CMarZ-Asia Database (http://www.cmarzasia.org/db/index.html), a comprehensive database on zooplankton information focusing on
the Asian Region, containing a search system from species names and sea areas to distribution,
sampling data, taxonomic illustrations, images, literature, and gene sequences. It also contains
a search system of gene-sequence database (BLAST) to identify species from sequenced data
of unidentified specimens.
lished during the present project in collaboration with the Census of Marine
Zooplankton (Fig. 4). This includes data
sets of sample collection and species information, including taxonomic, distributional, and gene sequence (barcode) information, photographic images and taxonomic illustrations for species identification. The ecological data (distribution,
abundance, biomass, diversity, etc.) collected/analyzed from different areas and/
or zooplankton-groups by the project
members have been uploaded to this database with the metadata for the sample collection (dates, gears, depths, analysts, environmental data, etc.).
Conclusion
The present project has considerably increased our knowledge on the status of
zooplankton biodiversity in East and
Southeast Asia. However, much still remain to be addressed. The continuous discovery of many new species indicates high
potential biodiversity of the region, necessitating continued research wherein
communication and collaboration with
taxonomic experts are essential, including
education of experts in the collaborating
countries themselves. On the other hand,
the present research indicates that Southeast Asian water represents excellent habi-
70
S. N ISHIDA
AND
tats in elucidating the mechanisms generating and maintaining species diversity in
the pelagic realm. This will invite further
research on pelagic biodiversity through
integrated morphological, genetic, and
biogeographic studies. As for evaluation
of the present status and future prediction
of ecosystems, quantitative information on
variability of zooplankton communities in
space and time is still very limited. Combination of data rescue and mining, use of
historical samples, and expanding database
should be an inexpensive, promising strategy.
J. NISHIKAWA
Acknowledgements
We thank the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science (JSPS) for supporting the Multilateral Core
University Program: Coastal Marine Science. Thanks
are also due to all members of the Plankton Group
for their collaboration throughout the project. Special thanks are due to staff members and students of
collaborating universities and institutes for their
great help in the field and laboratory. On behalf of
the Plankton-Group members, we dedicate this report to the memory of our good friend and colleague
Lourdes V. Castillo, who died unexpectedly in April
2008.
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