Viviparous sea snakes can be used as bioindicators for diverse marine environments

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Shallow tropical marine ecosystems are under great anthropogenic pressure due to habitat destruction, overfishing, shrimping, climate change, and tourism. This is an issue of global concern as such environments hold a tremendous biodiversity much of which remains to be described. The present situation urgently calls for time- and resource-efficient methods to identify and delineate the most valuable remaining areas and to set up priorities for their management and conservation. Using indicator species can be a way to accomplish this goal. In this paper we evaluate whether viviparous sea snakes can serve as bioindicators for other rare or cryptic tropical marine fauna. Based on seven generally acknowledged criteria for bioindicators, we argue that using viviparous sea snakes as bioindicators can help monitoring marine habitats to gauge the effects of climate change, habitat change and loss, decline in biodiversity and other anthropogenic changes. However, to maximize their efficacy as bioindicators, deeper knowledge about viviparous sea snakes natural history is urgently needed. Topics for expanded research programs include the taxonomy of some groups, their breeding and feeding biology, habitat selection and their geographical distribution. Despite these gaps in our understanding, we argue that viviparous sea snakes can be utilized as bioindicators of marine ecosystem health.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftPhilippine Journal of Systematic Biology
Vol/bind14
Udgave nummer2
Sider (fra-til)1-16
Antal sider16
ISSN1908-6865
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2020

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
Thanks to Professor Angel C. Alcala for his many inspiring scientific contributions to biodiversity conservation in marine biology and herpetology. Thanks also to DANIDA for support during surveys in Cambodia, India, Sulawesi, Thailand and Vietnam. Knud H?jgaards Fund, Swedish Orphan International AB, the Danish Research Council (Kulturministeriets Forskningpulje) for support during the Galathea3 expedition and The Carlsberg Fund for support during surveys in Sulawesi and New Guinea and the Research Council at KADK, School of Conservation for travel support. Erik Frausing, Henrik Agner and The Danish Navy and scientific members on board ?Vaedderen? are gratefully acknowledged for help in collecting sea snakes. We are also grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for improving the manuscript.

Funding Information:
Thanks to Professor Angel C. Alcala for his many inspiring scientific contributions to biodiversity conservation in marine biology and herpetology. Thanks also to DANIDA for support during surveys in Cambodia, India, Sulawesi, Thailand and Vietnam. Knud Højgaards Fund, Swedish Orphan International AB, the Danish Research Council (Kulturministeriets Forskningpulje) for support during the Galathea3 expedition and The Carlsberg Fund for support during surveys in Sulawesi and New Guinea and the Research Council at KADK, School of Conservation for travel support. Erik Frausing, Henrik Agner and The Danish Navy and scientific members on board “Vaedderen” are gratefully acknowledged for help in collecting sea snakes. We are also grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for improving the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020. Association of Systematic Biologists of the Philippines.

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