One hundred and twenty-one species of marine algae, seagrasses and cyanobacteria are reported from the offshore atolls of northwestern Western Australia (the Rowley Shoals, Scott Reef and Seringapatam Reef). Included are 65 species of Rhodophyta, 40 species of Chlorophyta, nine species of Phaeophyceae, three species of Cyanophyta and four species of seagrasses. This report presents the first detailed account of marine benthic algae from these atolls. Twenty-four species are newly recorded for Western Australia, with four species (Anadyomene wrightii, Rhipilia nigrescens, Ceramium krameri and Zellera tawallina) also newly recorded for Australia.
We report on studies in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa over the past 22 years that have yielded estimates of land-snail diversity in the main forest types occurring in East and eastern southern Africa. When supplemented with the results of similar research in Madagascar and West Africa by other workers, the information provides a more detailed picture of the patterns of land-snail diversity on the continent than was available to Solem (1984). We describe our field methods, re-examine Solem's (1984) assessments of sympatric, allopatric and mosaic diversity patterns in African forests and provide a review of overall species number at continental, regional and country-wide scales, and in the main African forest biomes that have been studied.
During this study, 14 new records of zooxanthellate scleractinian coral species were recorded from the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia. This brings the total number of these corals for the Dampier Archipelago to 229 species from 57 genera. The Dampier Archipelago is placed second only to Ashmore Reef in terms of number of coral species for a Western Australian reef. High species richness did not necessarily mean high coral cover. The first reported case of a hard coral containing mature ova during spring on the west coast of Australia is described. A complete updated list of azooxanthellate scleractinian corals recorded from the Dampier Archipelago is also presented (25 taxa in 6 families). INTRODUCTION Scientists from the Western Australian Museum first conducted surveys of the fauna of the Dampier Archipelago, including hard corals, during 1972– 1974 and again during 1978 (Marsh, 1978). These surveys were concentrated around the Burrup Peninsula and the outer westerly islands such as Kendrew and Rosemary and only extended to 9 m in depth. Simpson (1988) recorded additional hard coral species from the archipelago during ecological fieldwork conducted by the Environmental Protection Authority in 1982–1985. He also surveyed around Kendrew and Rosemary Islands, as well as Hamersley Shoal and outer Legendre Island. From these earlier field trips and recent Western Australian Museum records, the corrected number of zooxanthellate scleractinian coral species recorded before this study was 215 from 56 genera (Marsh, 1978; Simpson, 1988; Veron, 1993; Veron and Marsh, 1988). The corrections to these published lists were made with reference to the revision of the Fungiidae by Hoeksema (1989). The aim of this study was to conduct a survey of the hard corals of the Dampier Archipelago, concentrating on areas not sampled by previous workers. The material reported on herein was collected by the first (DA1/98) of two diving expeditions (DA1/98 and DA3/99) conducted in the Dampier Archipelago as part of the Woodside Energy Ltd/Western Australia Museum partnership.
ABSTRACT - The marine environments off the Kimberley coast are being subjected to ever increasing human-induced pressures, with little known of the region’s marine biodiversity, and therefore, which conservation approaches are appropriate. Consequently, the Western Australian Museum with partner agencies undertook to survey the region over a six year period (2009–2014). Thirty eight locations involving 179 survey stations were visited within the defined Project Area, which ranged from the Kimberley coast to the continental shelf edge. Geomorphic data from these stations, along with additional data from a 2006 survey, were incorporated into the analyses, providing a total of 224 survey stations. Analyses revealed a three-way differentiation of the surveyed stations demonstrating continental shelf zonation, an intertidal and subtidal distinction and a turbidity gradation.
ABSTRACT – This is the final paper in this series on historical marine biodiversity records of the Kimberley, north-western Australia from the Woodside Collection Project (Kimberley) 2009–2015. Here we document the historical records of seven additional phyla extracted from collection data from three Australian museums participating in the project. Although these data were not included as targeted
project taxa and are too few for meaningful statistical analyses or comparison, they are of interest for their historical value (oldest specimens and presence data), the baseline information the data contain, and for highlighting the significant knowledge gap they represent. Within the seven phyla, 121 species are recorded from 44 locations in the Project Area, with 48.6% of the original records excluded for reasons explained in Sampey et al. (2014).
Alan Solem's systematic work focused on Pacific island Endodontoidea and on Australian Camaenidae. His many papers on these taxa deal with 647 species (329 new) and 136 genera. His descriptions and identification criteria are detailed and clear. Though not a formal cladist, his interpretation of characters shows that his approach was intuitively cladistic, and his phylogenies are likely to survive formal analysis. His comprehensive revisions, and his cataloguing of whole faunas enabled him to analyse patterns of distribution, and to relate them to evolutionary, biogeographic and ecological theory. For the Pacific Islands, he exposed the limitations of the equilibrium theory of MacArthur and Wilson, drawing attention to its neglect of in situ speciation. In Australia, he identified many cases of remarkable allopatric distributions amongst camaenid genera and species, many of which have minute geographical ranges. Because he studied the whole fauna, and achieved remarkable geographical coverage, he could contrast these patterns with those seen in other families, and in the much richer faunas he studied in New Zealand, where many congeners coexist. He used his experience as a basis for a global review of land snail diversity. Some of the questions and ideas he raised are discussed here and elsewhere in the symposium. At the time of his death, Solem was working on the description of more material (8-10 genera and c. 100 species), and had started to explore the evolutionary events underlying these contrasts. Both his described and undescribed materials are available in WAM and FMNH, and offer the opportunity for cladistic and molecular analysis, answering questions of theoretical and conservation concern. His work has already informed conservation planning in Western Australia. Snail faunas are good general indicators of conservation value, and the completion of his work will further aid conservation planning.
