Biology

4.2

eISSN 2079-7737

12, 1124

SCIE

[논문]Marine Flora of French Polynesia: An Updated List Using DNA Barcoding and Traditional Approaches

Christophe Vieira

Myung Sook Kim, Antoine De Ramon N’Yeurt, Claude Payri, Sofie D’Hondt, Olivier De Clerck and Mayalen Zubia*

Located in the heart of the South Pacific Ocean, the French Polynesian islands represent
a remarkable setting for biological colonization and diversification, because of their isolation. Our
knowledge of this region’s biodiversity is nevertheless still incomplete for many groups of organisms.
In the late 1990s and 2000s, a series of publications provided the first checklists of French Polynesian
marine algae, including the Chlorophyta, Rhodophyta, Ochrophyta, and Cyanobacteria, established
mostly on traditional morphology-based taxonomy. We initiated a project to systematically DNA
barcode the marine flora of French Polynesia. Based on a large collection of ~2452 specimens, made
between 2014 and 2023, across the five French Polynesian archipelagos, we re-assessed the marine
floral species diversity (Alismatales, Cyanobacteria, Rhodophyta, Ochrophyta, Chlorophyta) using
DNA barcoding in concert with morphology-based classification. We provide here a major revision
of French Polynesian marine flora, with an updated listing of 702 species including 119 Chlorophyta,
169 Cyanobacteria, 92 Ochrophyta, 320 Rhodophyta, and 2 seagrass species—nearly a two-fold
increase from previous estimates. This study significantly improves our knowledge of French Polynesian marine diversity and provides a valuable DNA barcode reference library for identification
purposes and future taxonomic and conservation studies. A significant part of the diversity uncovered from French Polynesia corresponds to unidentified lineages, which will require careful future
taxonomic investigation.

2023.08.11.

https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12081124