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Occurrence of the supposedly endemic Australian azooxanthellate coral Astrangia woodsi Wells, 1955 in the eastern Arabian Sea

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Abstract

The scleractinian coral family Rhizangiidae is known to have a cosmopolitan distribution. The members of this family are all azooxanthellate, and they are little studied due to their small size, difficult identification, and possible rare occurrence. Astrangia woodsi Wells, 1955 is one of five rhizangiid species that is supposed to be endemic to Australia. During an underwater survey on a rocky reef in the eastern Arabian Sea on the Indian coast, this species was discovered for the first time outside its previously known range. The present record indicates that the endemic status of the species needs to be reconsidered and suggests that its range may include a large part of the Indian Ocean.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Director of ICAR-CMFRI for constant encouragement and funding. We are obliged to the officials of the Forest, Environment and Ecology Department, Government of Karnataka for the research permit. The first author would like to acknowledge the help rendered by the coral experts, Dr. J.E.N. Veron and Prof. Bert W. Hoeksema. The help rendered in diving by Mr. Bharathraj Shetty, Mr. W. Luis, Mr. Praveen, and Ms. Ankitha from West Coast Adventures is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are grateful to Dr. Nadia Santodomingo, anonymous reviewers, and the editor for their constructive feedback and comments which greatly improved the manuscript. This work forms part of the ICAR-CMFRI in-house project MBD/CRL/31.

Funding

The funding was obtained from the research grant approved for the ICAR-CMFRI in-house project MBD/CRL/31.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mangalore Regional Centre, ICAR-CMFRI, Mangaluru, 575 001, Karnataka, India

    Divya Viswambharan, Smruthu Mohan & Prathibha Rohit

  2. Marine Biodiversity Division, ICAR-CMFRI, Ernakulam North, 682018, Kerala, India

    K. R. Sreenath & K. K. Joshi

  3. Vizhinjam Regional Centre, ICAR-CMFRI, Thiruvananthapuram, 692521, Kerala, India

    S. Jasmine

  4. Sunderban Regional Centre, ZSI, South 24 Parganas, 743 329, West Bengal, India

    C. R. Sreeraj

Authors
  1. Divya Viswambharan
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  2. K. R. Sreenath
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  3. S. Jasmine
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  4. K. K. Joshi
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  5. C. R. Sreeraj
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  6. Smruthu Mohan
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  7. Prathibha Rohit
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Divya Viswambharan.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

No animal testing was performed during this study.

Sampling and field studies

All necessary permits for sampling and observational field studies have been obtained by the authors from the competent authorities and are mentioned in the acknowledgments. The study is compliant with CBD and Nagoya protocols.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article

Author contribution

DV, diving, sampling, photography, species taxonomy, literature review, and writing (original draft); SKR and SCR, investigation and writing (original draft, review and editing); SM, species taxonomy, GIS map preparation, and writing (original draft); JS, JKK, and PR, funding acquisition, supervision, and writing (review and editing)

Additional information

Communicated by B. W. Hoeksema

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Viswambharan, D., Sreenath, K., Jasmine, S. et al. Occurrence of the supposedly endemic Australian azooxanthellate coral Astrangia woodsi Wells, 1955 in the eastern Arabian Sea. Mar. Biodivers. 51, 84 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-021-01229-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-021-01229-1

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