In recent times, we have become used to reading bad news about the health of corals, severely punished by the increase in the temperature of the oceans. No less than 25% of marine species depend on these animals, and the reefs they form. One of the latest findings in this regard is that even those between 30 and 150 meters deep are not safe, a priori less exposed than living in surface waters: they also suffer the consequences of thermal stress, with bleaching that characterizes him.
That is why we should congratulate ourselves on announcements such as the one made by the Bulletin of Marine Science , a magazine that describes a new species of soft coral – that is, that does not produce hard calcium carbonate structures – found 60 kilometers from the Pacific coast of Panama. , on a deep threatened reef off the island of Coiba. The authors of the discovery are researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Institute in Panama (SRTI) and the Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology (CIMAR), at the University of Costa Rica.
Bright red in color , Thesea dalioi differs from other varieties of the other species of the genus Thesea present in the eastern Pacific – T. variabilis – by the thickness of its arms and its vivid chromaticism. It lives in the so-called Hannibal Bank, an underwater mountain in the Coiba National Park, a key place of oceanic biodiversity that has only recently begun to be studied.
Jewels in the gloom
But T. dalioi is only the most spectacular piece of the crop of finds collected by the researchers, who used advanced submersibles to explore the secrets of the Hannibal Bank, located 300 meters deep and shrouded in gloom . “We have identified 17 species of octocorals, or soft corals, three of them unknown until now,” explained Héctor M. Guzmán, SRTI marine ecologist and one of the authors of the study.
Typically, habitats rich in corals, sponges and algae that host the so-called mesophotic waters – those that are not shallow – receive less attention from science and environmental officials, as they are more difficult to study in the field. “This study should lay the foundations to find out how octocorals are distributed in the mesophotic zone of the eastern Pacific Ocean”, confides Odalisca Breedy, a marine biologist at CIMAR, who has also contributed to the discovery.
For his part, Guzmán emphasizes the possible medical applications of this type of findings – interesting anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties are being identified in corals, for example – and asks for collaboration: “our work does not only depend on funding for the use of of submersibles, but also that they grant us more permits to explore the Coiba National Park ”.
T dalioi is named after Ray Dalio, an American millionaire and philanthropist who makes significant financial contributions to promoting reef conservation.
Photo: A submersible collects a sample of the new coral species. Credit: Héctor Guzmán / STRI
More information: Breedy, O .; Guzman, HM (2018): “A new alcyonacean species (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Octocorallia) from a seamount in the tropical Pacific Ocean”. Bulletin of Marine Science. DOI: 10.5343 / bms.2018.0027
Video: Why are coral reefs so important?
In recent times, we have become used to reading bad news about the health of corals, severely punished by the increase in the temperature of the oceans. No less than 25% of marine species depend on these animals, and the reefs they form. One of the latest findings in this regard is that even those between 30 and 150 meters deep are not safe, a priori less exposed than living in surface waters: they also suffer the consequences of thermal stress, with bleaching that characterizes him.
That is why we should congratulate ourselves on announcements such as the one made by the Bulletin of Marine Science , a magazine that describes a new species of soft coral – that is, that does not produce hard calcium carbonate structures – found 60 kilometers from the Pacific coast of Panama. , on a deep threatened reef off the island of Coiba. The authors of the discovery are researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Institute in Panama (SRTI) and the Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology (CIMAR), at the University of Costa Rica.
Bright red in color , Thesea dalioi differs from other varieties of the other species of the genus Thesea present in the eastern Pacific – T. variabilis – by the thickness of its arms and its vivid chromaticism. It lives in the so-called Hannibal Bank, an underwater mountain in the Coiba National Park, a key place of oceanic biodiversity that has only recently begun to be studied.
Jewels in the gloom
But T. dalioi is only the most spectacular piece of the crop of finds collected by the researchers, who used advanced submersibles to explore the secrets of the Hannibal Bank, located 300 meters deep and shrouded in gloom . “We have identified 17 species of octocorals, or soft corals, three of them unknown until now,” explained Héctor M. Guzmán, SRTI marine ecologist and one of the authors of the study.
Typically, habitats rich in corals, sponges and algae that host the so-called mesophotic waters – those that are not shallow – receive less attention from science and environmental officials, as they are more difficult to study in the field. “This study should lay the foundations to find out how octocorals are distributed in the mesophotic zone of the eastern Pacific Ocean”, confides Odalisca Breedy, a marine biologist at CIMAR, who has also contributed to the discovery.
For his part, Guzmán emphasizes the possible medical applications of this type of findings – interesting anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties are being identified in corals, for example – and asks for collaboration: “our work does not only depend on funding for the use of of submersibles, but also that they grant us more permits to explore the Coiba National Park ”.
T dalioi is named after Ray Dalio, an American millionaire and philanthropist who makes significant financial contributions to promoting reef conservation.
Photo: A submersible collects a sample of the new coral species. Credit: Héctor Guzmán / STRI
Más información: Breedy, O.; Guzman, H. M. (2018): “A new alcyonacean species (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Octocorallia) from a seamount in the tropical Pacific Ocean”. Bulletin of Marine Science. DOI: 10.5343/bms.2018.0027
