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The coral fauna of the Chagos Archipelago

A provisional check list is given of corals collected from Egmont Atoll and the Chagos Bank by the Joint Services Expeditions. At least 63 scleractinian genera and subgenera are represented, including 55 hermatypic genera, of which 13 are new records for the archipelago. Data from the Chagos Bank indicate that some genera and species exhibit zonation with respect to depth. In particular, corals such as Coscinaraea monile, Pachyseris cf. speciosa,Leptoseris mycetoseroides, Leptoseris spp., Cycloseris and the pectiniid genera are most abundant in deeper water (in collections from 27m -45m). Comparison with other Indo-Pacific records confirms that such genera are most conspicuous at depths below the optimum range of many other hermatypes. The recent collections show that the Chagos reefs support a rich coral fauna: The high diversity centre in the western Indian Ocean should therefore include the Chagos Archipelago.

Authors

Dinesan Z .

Year

1

ISBN-13

0

Keywords

Scleractnia (hard corals), Corals, Species list, Zonation, Diversity, ICRS3 Scleractinia, Taxonomy, Zoogeography

Dinesen 1977.pdf