Marine algae and seagrasses from Wallis Islands (French Overseas Territory of Wallis and Futuna), South Pacific

Occurrence Specimen
Latest version published by Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node on May 30, 2025 Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node
Publication date:
30 May 2025
License:
CC-BY 4.0

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Data as a DwC-A file download 907 records in English (67 KB) - Update frequency: unknown
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Description

A total of 194 species of marine algae (14 Cyanobacteria, 41 Chlorophyta, 11 Heterokontophyta and 128 Rhodophyta), as well as three species of seagrasses, represent the first published records for the isolated island of Wallis, South Pacific. The flora has its strongest affinities with Fiji and Rotuma, followed by Samoa and French Polynesia. The lack of diverse habitats and its geographical location are invoked to explain the relatively low species richness compared with localities such as Fiji and Samoa. The flora has a typically tropical component dominated by encrusting coralline red algae, the calcified green algal genera Halimeda, and assemblages of Cyanobacteria. Normally ubiquitous species such as Halimeda discoidea, and the brown algal genera Hydroclathrus, Colpomenia, Rosenvingea, Asteronema, and Chnoospora are notably absent from the island, perhaps due to seasonality and the lack of suitable habitats. The minute epiphytic red alga Acrochaetium kurogii is reported for the first time outside of its type locality in Japan, while two as yet unidentified species of red algae (Gracilaria sp. and Sebdenia sp.) could represent new taxa if further useful material is found.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 907 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

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How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

N’Yeurt A D R, Payri C E (2025). Marine algae and seagrasses from Wallis Islands (French Overseas Territory of Wallis and Futuna), South Pacific. Version 1.0. Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. Occurrence dataset. https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=wallis_algae&v=1.0

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: b4a365f3-8c6b-4897-a054-1f6adf75516e.  Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Ocean Biodiversity Information System.

Keywords

Occurrence; Specimen

Contacts

Antoine D. R. N’Yeurt
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Originator ●
  • Point Of Contact
Laboratoire Terre-Ocean, Université de la Polynesié Française
98702 BP 6570 Faa’a
Tahiti
PF
Claude E. Payri
  • Originator
BUMR 7138, Systématique, Adaptation, Evolution, Equipe Biodiversité Marine Tropicale, IRD-Nouméa
98848 Noumea cedex
NC

Geographic Coverage

Wallis Islands

Bounding Coordinates South West [-13.386, -176.271], North East [-13.168, -176.125]

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2002-05-24 / 2002-06-08

Bibliographic Citations

  1. N'Yeurt, A.D. and Payri, C.E., 2004. A preliminary annotated checklist of the marine algae and seagrasses of the Wallis Islands (French Overseas Territory of Wallis and Futuna), South Pacific. Australian systematic botany, 17(4), pp.367-397.

Additional Metadata

marine, harvested by iOBIS

Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge financial support for this study from the French Coral Reef Reasearch Institute, IFRECOR. Mr Heroen Verbruggen (Ghent University, Belgium) is thanked for identifying Halimeda species, as well as for helping us with collections and sorting of material in the field, and for being a valuable dive buddy. We thank the following individuals: Mr Paino Vanai, Head of the Environmental Service and all his devoted staff, for logistical support in the field and on land, without which this mission would have been impossible; the Prefect and Chief Administrator of Wallis and Futuna; Lavelua, King of Wallis; the members of the Traditional Council of Chiefs of Wallis, and Professor C. Chauvet, Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Dr Serge Andrefouët is thanked for providing the base map of Wallis, as is Professor Philippe Morat for kindly providing information on seagrass.
Introduction The Wallis Islands include Wallis Island, also known as Uvea Island, and 19 small islets that are located in the south-western Pacific between 13°18′S and 176°124′W, two-thirds of the way between Hawaii and New Zealand. The Wallis Islands form an archipelago that also includes the islands of Futuna and Alofi. Wallis Island is a volcanic high island, of generally elongate shape, which represents the emerged portions of ancient craters. It is 15 km wide in a north–south direction, and 7.8 km long in an east–west direction. Emerged land area comprises 79.12 km2, with 129 km of coastline for a total reef-lagoon area of 219.5 km2. The highest point is 155 m tall Mt Lulu; the island’s geology is composed of volcanic tuffs and basalts. The island was formed in several stages, the last being in the middle Pleistocene. The human population is approximately 10000, distributed in villages mainly on the eastern coast of the island.
Purpose There is no previous information in the literature concerning the marine algae or seagrasses of Wallis Island, although there exists a report on the lagoons and reefs of Wallis and Futuna (Salvat 1982) with an excellent treatment of the corals, but which unfortunately only hints at the existence of two genera of marine algae. A few years later, a study was made of the terrestrial flora of Wallis, including mangroves (Morat and Veillon 1985). At the request of the Environmental Service of the French Overseas Territory of Wallis and Futuna, a survey was undertaken from 24 May to 8 June 2002, so as to establish a preliminary inventory of the coral fauna and benthic macroalgae/seagrass flora, and determine the ecological characteristics of the coral reef and lagoon habitats of Wallis (Payri et al. 2002). This paper deals with the marine benthic algae and seagrasses encountered in that study.
Alternative Identifiers https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=wallis_algae