Species diversity and geographical distribution of marine, benthic, shell-bearing mollusks on the coast and adjacent area of Pingtan Island, Fujian Province

Abstract

Aims: Marine, benthic, shell-bearing mollusks are one of the most important groups of marine benthic invertebrates. Pingtan Island is an island in the northwestern part of the Taiwan Strait. The marine, benthic, shelled fauna in this area are important for revealing the ecological environment and biogeographical pattern of the Taiwan Strait and its adjacent waters. Here, we report the species diversity and distribution patterns of shelled-mollusks found in Pingtan Island and its adjacent waters. Methods: We conducted a checklist of known marine, benthic, shells found near Pingtan Island and its adjacent waters based on previous studies and 3,346 specimens collected by the Department of Physical Geography, Resources and Environment, Sun Yat-sen University from 2015–2018. We then investigated distribution patterns of each listed species in the coast waters of China. Results: We identified a total of 161 species from 122 genera and 58 families. Of these 161 species, 47 species were new to the study area. In total, 395 species of mollusks belonging to 244 genera and 98 families are reported to inhabit Pingtan Island and its adjacent waters. Of them, 93.7% of the species are also distributed in the South China Sea, 82.0% in the East China Sea, 31.1% in the Yellow and Bohai Seas, and 42.3% in the waters east of Taiwan Island. The distribution pattern between the South China Sea and the East China Sea accounted for 49.9% of the total species. The distribution pattern between the South China Sea and the Yellow and Bohai Seas accounted for 27.6% of the total species. The distrubition pattern between the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait accounted for 16.2% of the total 多样性Biodiversity Science species. Only 6.3% of the species were confined to be limited to the Taiwan Strait and the region to the north of it. Conclusions: The marine, benthic, shell-bearing mollusks in Pingtan Island have typical subtropical characteristics, among which warm and eurythermic species are dominant. The shelled-mollusks in Pingtan Island has a close relationship with that of the continental shelves of the South China Sea (northern part) and East China Sea. In contrast, the relationship between shelled-mollusks in Pingtan Island and that of the waters around the Taiwan Island is relatively weak.