2025/12/11 by Indra Bayu Vimono, Philippe Borsa, Régis Hocdé +6 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Medicine · #Echinoderm biology and ecology #Marine and coastal plant biology #Public Health and Nutrition
paper · pdf · doi:10.32800/amz.2025.23.0135
openalex publication_date 2025/12/11 · openalex created_date 2025/12/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Long-spined sea urchin species (genus Diadema) are important to the ecology of coral-reef ecosystems. The objective of this paper is to inventory Diadema species occurring in the so far under-sampled Indo-Malay archipelago at the core of the tropical Indo-West Pacific ensemble and to produce point maps. Records of Diadema spp. were compiled from the literature and from the GBIF database. New records were obtained by visual censuses at 52 coastal locations across the Indo-Malay archipelago. Specimens were collected and their nucleotide sequences at the mitochondrial COI gene locus were produced. Photographs were taken, voucher specimens were deposited in scientific collections. Nucleotide sequences revealed three mitochondrial lineages in the Indo-Malay archipelago, which clustered with the D. paucispinum, D. savignyi and D. setosum-a lineages. The distinction between D. paucispinum and D. savignyi was possible only through COI barcoding. D. paucispinum was thus recorded for the first time in the Andaman Sea, in Makassar Strait and in the Banda Sea. D. savignyi was recorded for the first time in the Andaman Sea, in the Bali Sea, in the Flores Sea and on the Pacific shores of West Papua. We failed to sample D. clarki despite extensive reef surveys in Makassar Strait and in the Banda Sea, the two regions where this species had been reported previously. The present study provides the first comprehensive COI-based inventory of long-spined sea urchin species inhabiting the coral reef ecosystems of the Indo-Malay archipelago. This information is important to our understanding of the biogeography of Diadema sea urchin communities and it can be useful to their fisheries and conservation management in this region. Dataset published through GBIF (DOI: 10.15470/weeuk1)