Lagplon Echinodermata

Jean-Louis Menou1, Fiat Sylvie1, Claude Payri1

1 IRD, BP A5, 98848, NOUMEA, New Caledonia

Corresponding author(s): Jean-Louis Menou, Fiat Sylvie (sylvie.fiat@ird.fr)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Ameziane N. 2006. in Payri C. & Richer de Forges B., 2006. Compendium of marine species from New Caledonia. Doc. Sci. Tech. II7 volume spécial, IRD:295-305 fdi:010038859

Abstract

Echinodermata data provided by the collection of IRD of Noumea, preserved at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris (MNHN). Data are referred to genus and species of sampled specimens along with taxonomical authorship; phylum/class/order/family taxonomy are also provided. Information on sampling site and event, including country and  locality, date, and parameters like geomorphology, depth, visibility, orientation  or collector of the specimens and more are recorded. Each specimen is linked to a species file and named with alphanumeric references related to the field notes : EH218, EH being the Lagplon identifiant for echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea and 218 being the 218th specimen of Holothuroidea referenced in the collection.
Lagplon codes echinoderms are divided in 5 classes: EA for Asteroidea, EC for Crinoidea, EC for Echinoidea, EH for Holothuridea and EO for Ophiurida.

Keywords: biota, oceans, location, environment, organismes marins, vivants, biodiversité des récifs coralliens, prélèvements, échinodermes, plongée, asteroidea, étoiles de mer, starfish, crinoidea, crinoides, crinoid, Echnoidea, oursins, urchins, holothuroidea, holothuries, holothuria, concombres de mer, sea cucumbers, ophiuroidea, ophiures, brittle star, NC, NOUVELLE-CALÉDONIE, NEW CALEDONIA, PF, POLYNÉSIE FRANCAISE, FRENCH POLYNESIA, Occurrence, Specimen

General description

Purpose: Created in 1975 by the diving office of the ORSTOM in Noumea (New Caledonia), Lagplon is an information system for marine biodiversity of New Caledonia and other regions of Indo Pacific coral reefs and lagoons. Data collections and marine observations are related to benthic fauna and flora inventories from coastal waters.
Lagplon contributes to overseas taxonomic reference update and is supplying national and international portals. In 2013, the database has more than 15.000 specimens referenced of which 8.000 have been identified at the species level and are providing to the INPN (National Inventory of Natural Patrimony of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris) and then to the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) and supported by the IFRECOR initiative and the national strategy for biodiversity.

Project details

Project title: Collection of marine biodiversity of Indo Pacific - IRD Noumea
Personnel: Claude Payri
Funding: IRD (ex ORSTOM)
FRB
Ministère de l'écologie, du développement durable et de l'énergie
IFRECOR
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Shallow waters from New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
Design description: Coral reefs and associated ecosystems (mangrove swamp, phanerogam meadow and algal beds) including reefs, lagoons and outer slopes.

Data published through GBIF: http://lagplon.ird.nc:8080/ipt/resource.do?r=lagplon_echinodermes

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The Asteroidea is one of the largest and most familiar classes within the Phylum Echinodermata. These animals, commonly known as sea stars or starfishes, form a diverse and speciose group. There are approximately 1600 extant species (Hyman 1955; Clark 1977; Clark and Downey 1992) which are found throughout the world's oceans. Following the classification of Blake (1987), these species are grouped into seven orders: Brisingida, Forcipulatida, Notomyotida, Paxillosida, Spinulosida, Valvatida and Velatida.
Like other echinoderms, asteroids are important members of many marine benthic communities. They can be voracious predators, having significant impacts on community structure. For example, Paine (1966) used Pisaster ochraceus to illustrate his concept of the role keystone species play in community ecology. The crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, is particularly well-known because it can cause extreme detrimental effects to coral reefs, particularly during population outbreaks (Moran 1988). 
Extract from Tree of Life: http://tolweb.org/Asteroidea
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Asteroidea
Common names: Animal, Echinodermes, Starfish, Etoiles de mer
Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Comatulida is an order of crinoids. Members of this order are known as feather stars and, unlike the majority of crinoids, do not have a stalk as adults. The oral surface with the mouth is facing upwards and is surrounded by five, often divided rays with feathery pinnules. Comatulids live on the seabed and on reefs in tropical and temperate waters and are suspension feeders.
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Crinoidea
Order: Comatulida
Common names: Animal, Echinodermes, Crinoids, Crinoides
Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Sea urchins or urchins, sometimes called sea hedgehogs, are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. There are c. 950 species of echinoids inhabiting all oceans from the intertidal to 5000 meters deep. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 cm (1.2 to 3.9 in) across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple, blue, and red. They move slowly, feeding mostly on algae. Sea otters, wolf eels, triggerfish, and other predators feed on them.
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Echinoidea
Common names: Animal, Echinodermes, Urchins
Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The Holothuroidea, or sea cucumbers, are an abundant and diverse group of worm-like and usually soft-bodied echinoderms. They are found in nearly every marine environment, but are most diverse on tropical shallow-water coral reefs. They range from the intertidal, where they may be exposed briefly at low tide, to the floor of the deepest oceanic trenches. The oldest undoubted fossils of sea cucumbers are of isolated spicules from the Silurian (ca. 400 million years ago; Gilliland, 1993). Considerable diversification has occurred since then with about 1400 living species in a variety of forms. Some of these are about 20 cm in length, though adults of some diminutive species may not exceed a centimeter, while one large species can reach lengths of 5 m (Synapta maculata). Several species can swim and there are even forms that live their entire lives as plankton, floating with the ocean currents.

Economically, sea cucumbers are important in two main ways. First, some species produce toxins that are of interest to pharmaceutical firms seeking to learn their medical value. Some compounds isolated to date exhibit antimicrobial activity or act as anti-inflammatory agents and anticoagulants. Second, as a gourmet food item in the orient, they form the basis of a multimillion-dollar industry that processes the body wall for sale as beche-de-mer or trepang. However, the high value of some species, the ease with which such shallow-water forms can be collected and their top-heavy age structures all contribute to over-exploitation and collapse of the fisheries in some regions. Fishermen in the Pacific islands use the toxins, some of which act as respiratory inhibitors, to entice fish and octopus from crevices so that they may be more easily speared. Furthermore, the sticky Cuvierian tubules (see description below) are placed over bleeding wounds as a bandage.
Extract from Tree of Life: http://tolweb.org/Holothuroidea
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Holothuroidea
Common names: Animal, Echinodermes, Sea cucumbers
Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Brittle stars or ophiuroids are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea closely related to starfish. They crawl across the seafloor using their flexible arms for locomotion. The ophiuroids generally have five long slender, whip-like arms which may reach up to 60 centimetres (24 in) in length on the largest specimens. They are also known as serpent stars.
Ophiuroidea contains two large clades, Ophiurida (brittle stars) and Euryalida (basket stars).
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Ophiuroidea
Common names: Animal, Echinodermes, Brittle star, Ophiuroids, Ophiures

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: IRD sampling regions in various :

New Caledonia
French Polynesia
Coordinates: 90°0'0''S and 90°0'0''N Latitude; 180°0'0''W and 180°0'0''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: 2 juillet 1975

Natural collections description

Parent collection identifier: Collection of marine biodiversity of Indo Pacific - IRD Noumea
Collection name: Collection of Echinoderms of IRD Noumea
Collection identifier: lagplon_echinodermata
Specimen preservation method: Alcohol

Methods

Method step description: Taxonomic identifications are made from morphoanatomical studies and with the available specialized literature, references can be found in the world database WORMS.
Study extent description: Marine fauna sampling mainly by SCUBA (0-60m) in various habitats and less frequently by TRIMIX  (down to 100 m); collecting effort by reef walking or by snorkeling on fringing reefs and lagoon areas. The data have been collected during several dedicated oceanographic campaigns (mainly on the N/O Alis), as part of doctoral studies or opportunistic sampling during marine research programmes in New Caledonia since the 1980s.
Sampling description: Collections are made by hand during the dives. Collected specimens are then sorted in laboratory and labelled. Specimens are preserved in ethanol as vouchers. Tissue collections are made from fragments removed from the vouchers and preserved  ethanol for further DNA analyses.
When possible, in situ photographs of the species habit are taken before sampling.
Various information (georeferences, taxonomy and photos) are then computed in the Lagplon database.
Quality control description: All the data inserted in the database have been the subject of taxonomic studies based on morphoanatomical analyses of the specimen and a genetic analysis has been made whenever possible.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Lagplon Echinodermata
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://lagplon.ird.nc:8080/ipt/archive.do?r=lagplon_echinodermes
Publication date of data: 2016-05-25
Language: French
Licenses of use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

External datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Lagplon
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: CSV
Distribution: http://lagplon.ird.nc

Dataset description
Object name: MNHN
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: CSV
Distribution: http://coldb.mnhn.fr

Dataset description
Object name: INPN Collection des données de biodiversité marine de Nouvelle-Calédonie
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: HTML
Distribution: http://inpn.mnhn.fr/espece/inventaire/I139

Dataset description
Object name: INPN Collection des données de biodiversité marine de Polynésie Française
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: HTML
Distribution: http://inpn.mnhn.fr/espece/inventaire/I140

Dataset description
Object name: GBIF LAGPLON - Nouvelle-Calédonie
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: HTML
Distribution: http://www.gbif.org/dataset/e5d47a25-9e51-40db-9b5c-3f766be5c7b5

Dataset description
Object name: GBIF LAGPLON - Polynésie francais
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: HTML
Distribution: http://www.gbif.org/dataset/eed49c61-2085-46c4-8d4f-d2cda50fd404

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2012-02-09
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Guille A., Laboute P. et Menou JL, 1986. Echinodermes de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Guide des étoiles de mer, oursins et autres échinodermes du lagon de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Editions de l'ORSTOM, collection faunes tropicales, N°XXV:238p.