Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.

Continental South Africa has a coastline of some 3,650 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of just over 1 million km(2). Waters in the EEZ extend to a depth of 5,700 m, with more than 65% deeper than 2,000 m. Despite its status as a developing nation, South Africa has a relatively strong history...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Charles L Griffiths, Tamara B Robinson, Louise Lange, Angela Mead
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2010
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2302598de7f04896b9bc2f4a98d7f0b6
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:2302598de7f04896b9bc2f4a98d7f0b6
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2302598de7f04896b9bc2f4a98d7f0b62021-11-18T06:36:29ZMarine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0012008https://doaj.org/article/2302598de7f04896b9bc2f4a98d7f0b62010-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/20689849/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Continental South Africa has a coastline of some 3,650 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of just over 1 million km(2). Waters in the EEZ extend to a depth of 5,700 m, with more than 65% deeper than 2,000 m. Despite its status as a developing nation, South Africa has a relatively strong history of marine taxonomic research and maintains comprehensive and well-curated museum collections totaling over 291,000 records. Over 3 million locality records from more than 23,000 species have been lodged in the regional AfrOBIS (African Ocean Biogeographic Information System) data center (which stores data from a wider African region). A large number of regional guides to the marine fauna and flora are also available and are listed. The currently recorded marine biota of South Africa numbers at least 12,914 species, although many taxa, particularly those of small body size, remain poorly documented. The coastal zone is relatively well sampled with some 2,500 samples of benthic invertebrate communities have been taken by grab, dredge, or trawl. Almost none of these samples, however, were collected after 1980, and over 99% of existing samples are from depths shallower than 1,000 m--indeed 83% are from less than 100 m. The abyssal zone thus remains almost completely unexplored. South Africa has a fairly large industrial fishing industry, of which the largest fisheries are the pelagic (pilchard and anchovy) and demersal (hake) sectors, both focused on the west and south coasts. The east coast has fewer, smaller commercial fisheries, but a high coastal population density, resulting in intense exploitation of inshore resources by recreational and subsistence fishers, and this has resulted in the overexploitation of many coastal fish and invertebrate stocks. South Africa has a small aquaculture industry rearing mussels, oysters, prawns, and abalone-the latter two in land-based facilities. Compared with many other developing countries, South Africa has a well-conserved coastline, 23% of which is under formal protection, however deeper waters are almost entirely excluded from conservation areas. Marine pollution is confined mainly to the densely populated KwaZulu-Natal coast and the urban centers of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Over 120 introduced or cryptogenic marine species have been recorded, but most of these are confined to the few harbors and sheltered sites along the coast.Charles L GriffithsTamara B RobinsonLouise LangeAngela MeadPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 5, Iss 8, p e12008 (2010)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Charles L Griffiths Tamara B Robinson Louise Lange Angela Mead Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.
description	Continental South Africa has a coastline of some 3,650 km and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of just over 1 million km(2). Waters in the EEZ extend to a depth of 5,700 m, with more than 65% deeper than 2,000 m. Despite its status as a developing nation, South Africa has a relatively strong history of marine taxonomic research and maintains comprehensive and well-curated museum collections totaling over 291,000 records. Over 3 million locality records from more than 23,000 species have been lodged in the regional AfrOBIS (African Ocean Biogeographic Information System) data center (which stores data from a wider African region). A large number of regional guides to the marine fauna and flora are also available and are listed. The currently recorded marine biota of South Africa numbers at least 12,914 species, although many taxa, particularly those of small body size, remain poorly documented. The coastal zone is relatively well sampled with some 2,500 samples of benthic invertebrate communities have been taken by grab, dredge, or trawl. Almost none of these samples, however, were collected after 1980, and over 99% of existing samples are from depths shallower than 1,000 m--indeed 83% are from less than 100 m. The abyssal zone thus remains almost completely unexplored. South Africa has a fairly large industrial fishing industry, of which the largest fisheries are the pelagic (pilchard and anchovy) and demersal (hake) sectors, both focused on the west and south coasts. The east coast has fewer, smaller commercial fisheries, but a high coastal population density, resulting in intense exploitation of inshore resources by recreational and subsistence fishers, and this has resulted in the overexploitation of many coastal fish and invertebrate stocks. South Africa has a small aquaculture industry rearing mussels, oysters, prawns, and abalone-the latter two in land-based facilities. Compared with many other developing countries, South Africa has a well-conserved coastline, 23% of which is under formal protection, however deeper waters are almost entirely excluded from conservation areas. Marine pollution is confined mainly to the densely populated KwaZulu-Natal coast and the urban centers of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Over 120 introduced or cryptogenic marine species have been recorded, but most of these are confined to the few harbors and sheltered sites along the coast.
format	article
author	Charles L Griffiths Tamara B Robinson Louise Lange Angela Mead
author_facet	Charles L Griffiths Tamara B Robinson Louise Lange Angela Mead
author_sort	Charles L Griffiths
title	Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.
title_short	Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.
title_full	Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.
title_fullStr	Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.
title_full_unstemmed	Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.
title_sort	marine biodiversity in south africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2010
url	https://doaj.org/article/2302598de7f04896b9bc2f4a98d7f0b6
work_keys_str_mv	AT charleslgriffiths marinebiodiversityinsouthafricaanevaluationofcurrentstatesofknowledge AT tamarabrobinson marinebiodiversityinsouthafricaanevaluationofcurrentstatesofknowledge AT louiselange marinebiodiversityinsouthafricaanevaluationofcurrentstatesofknowledge AT angelamead marinebiodiversityinsouthafricaanevaluationofcurrentstatesofknowledge
_version_	1718424402686640128

Marine biodiversity in South Africa: an evaluation of current states of knowledge.

Ejemplares similares