Coral Reef Fishes of Indonesia

Gerald R. Allen ； Mohammed Adrim

《Zoological Studies》 42卷1期 (2003/01) Pp. 1-72

並列摘要

The Indonesian Archipelago has an extensive history of ichthyological exploration dating back to visits by the French vessels L' Uranie (1818-1819), La Coquille (1823), and L' Astrolabe (1826). Thanks largely to the exhaustive works of Pieter Bleeker(1819-1878), an extensive knowledge of Indonesian fishes existed at the beginning of the last century. Weber and de Beaufort continued to build on this foundation in their landmark publication Fishes of the Indo-Australian Archipelago, published in 11 volumes between 1911 and 1962. By the time the last volume was published, it was evident that the East Indian region and Indonesia in particular was endowed with the world's richest coral reef fauna. Although this claim has been confirmed by recent studies of several families and genera, there has been no comprehensive study of the Indonesian reef fish fauna in recent times. The present work, which includes a checklist, provides a detailed analysis. The current reef fauna consists of 2057 species belonging to 113 families. The 10 most-speciose groups, which account for approximately 56% of the fauna, are the Gobiidae (272 species), Labridae (178), Pomacentridae (152), Apogonidae (114), Blenniidae (107), Serranidae (102), Muraenidae (61), Syngnathidae (61), Chaetodontidae (59), and Lutjanidae (43). A zoogeographic analysis reveals that the majority (about 39%) of species are widely distributed either in the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-West and central Pacific, 23% are primarily distributed in the western and central Pacific, 15% (excluding endemics) range across the Indo-Australian Archipelago or portions of this region, 5% have primarily Indian Ocean ranges, and 4.7% are endemic to Indonesia. Analysis of current distributions indicates the presence of at least 4 regional ”hotspots” or centers of endemism including the West Nusa Tenggara Is., East Nusa Tengara Is., northeastern Sulawesi (and offshore islands), and Papua (formerly Irian Jaya). In addition, there are 8 localized centers within these 4 regions: Flores, Togean Is., western and northern Sumatra, Komodo, Raja Ampat Is., Molucca Is., Java Sea, and Banggai Is. Most of the endemics (about 75%) are included in only 8 families: Pseudochromidae, Blenniidae, Pomacentridae, Apogonidae, Labridae, Syngnathidae, Gobiidae, and Callionymidae. Possible key factors for the proliferation of coral reef species in the East Indian region (i.e., Indonesia and surrounding areas) include its huge continuous area and abundance of island ”stepping stones”(forming a buffer against extinction), the merging of disparate geological and biological elements due to tectonic activity, a long history of warm sea temperatures, and fluctuating sea levels during past glacial periods that formed effective isolating barriers and allowed the evolution of geminate species. Biological factors also appear to be significant. Numerous species with a reduced pelagic larval period have apparently evolved and accumulated in the region. There also appears to be an accumulation of species that probably evolved in peripheral regions and were subsequently conveyed to the East Indies by ocean currents. A total of 3764 coral reef-associated fishes is estimated for the entire Indo-Pacific region based on a regression formula, utilizing the number of species in 6 indicator families: Chaetodontidae, Pomacanthidae, Pomacentridae, Labridae, Scaridae, and Acanthuridae. Assuming that this estimate is accurate, at least 1/2 of the Indo-Pacific species are represented in Indonesian seas.

並列關鍵字

Indo-Pacific ； Ichthyology ； Endemism ； Zoogeography ； Checklist