Molluscan Diversity of the Florida Keys: a faunal project based on original collections, museum holdings and literature data Sponsored in part by NSF-PEET DEB-9978119 and the Comer Science & Education Foundation Rüdiger Bieler & Paula M. Mikkelsen Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. INTRODUCTION The Florida Keys are of great interest zoogeographically, comprising temperate to tropical elements of the northwestern Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. A region with booming tourist, sport- fishing, and diving industries, impacted by runoffs from the likewise stressed Everglades, and modified by massive bridge and causeway construction and human sprawl, an analysis is sorely needed by the sanctuary management toward their future attempts to assess the effectiveness of enforced preservation measures (such as closing certain areas to fisheries or limiting public access). This project’s combination of region-wide qualitative sampling, thorough and rapid collecting techniques, “data mining” of museum collections and literature resources, as well as a large-scale transect project along the island chain, have to date nearly tripled the number of marine mollusk species known to live in the Florida Keys to about 1,700, and given insight into their distribution and ecology in the region. Dated museum records are used to investigate occurrence/ distributional patterns over the past 100+ years and are indicative of recent introductions and losses. MONOGRAPHIC RESULTS ABSTRACT: Before molluscan biodiversity of a particular region can be compared to others, before changes can be monitored, and before steps can be designed to preserve particular species, it is necessary to assess the existing (and, if possible, past) fauna. Because of the often small size and cryptic nature of the animals involved, and the specialized knowledge necessary to recognize them, there are few geographic regions for which sufficient baseline data have been assembled. A combination of new field collecting with the comparative study of historic museum collections and the analysis of existing literature can not only create such baseline data, but also reconstruct historic diversity data. Such an effort is underway for the molluscan fauna of the Florida Keys, an island chain and associated habitats at the southern tip of peninsular Florida that includes the second largest U.S. marine sanctuary with nearly 10,000 km2. This project’s combination of region-wide qualitative sampling, thorough and rapid collecting techniques, "data mining" of museum collections and literature resources, as well as a large-scale transect project along the island chain, have to date nearly tripled the number of marine mollusk species known to live in the Florida Keys, to about 1,700, and given insight into their distribution and ecology in the region. Dated museum records are used to investigate occurrence/ distributional patterns over the past 100+ years and are indicative of recent introductions and losses in this region. A first project phase focusing on bivalve diversity was recently completed, resulting in published faunal analyses and critical catalogues, as well as descriptions and extensive photographic documentation of nearly 400 species. The considerable clade richness (with half of the world’s bivalve families represented in the regional fauna) also allowed conducting an exemplar-based comparative survey of bivalve morphology and anatomy, the focus of a forthcoming book-length treatment. DATA-GATHERING METHODS > Field collecting (shore/small boat/large vessel; hand-collecting, SCUBA, dredging, grabbing, suction-sampling): 750+ stations > Museum studies & private collections: 9,000+ lots > Literature review (books, journals, newsletters, agency reports): 1,200 titles > Species-record databasing: 36,000+ records GOALS > Develop a complete qualitative species-level account of a molluscan fauna (from fieldwork, collections & literature) > Provide baseline data for western Atlantic zoogeographic studies (based on taxonomic research, museum vouchers, photographic documentation) > Recreate occurrence/distribution information for past decades (and test utility of literature information and museum collections in reconstructing historic events) > Document ecological/anatomical information > Explore fidelity of death assemblages > Advise Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary management 18 cm A new invader: Indo- Pacific gryphaeid Hyotissa hyotis Several years of sorting effort Fieldwork with student participation Formal Training Workshops From a forthcoming publication on the Florida Keys Bivalvia fauna [Princeton University Press] The project region Photographic documentation Some recent project publications: Bieler R. & P. M. Mikkelsen, 2003. The cruises of the Eolis -- John B. Henderson's mollusc collections off the Florida Keys, 1910- 1916. American Malacological Bulletin, 17(1-2): 125-140. Bieler, R. & P. M. Mikkelsen (eds.), 2004. Bivalve Studies in the Florida Keys, Proceedings of the International Marine Bivalve Workshop, Long Key, Florida, July 2002. Malacologia, 46(2), 386 pp. Bieler, R. & P. M. Mikkelsen, 2004. Marine bivalves of the Florida Keys: a qualitative faunal analysis based on original collections, museum holdings and literature data. Malacologia, 46(2): 503-544. Bieler, R., P. M. Mikkelsen, T. Lee & D. Ó Foighil, 2004. Discovery of the Indo-Pacific oyster Hyotissa hyotis (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Florida Keys (Bivalvia: Gryphaeidae). Molluscan Research, 24(3): 149-159. Mikkelsen, P. M. & R. Bieler, 2003. Systematic revision of the western Atlantic file clams, Lima and Ctenoides (Bivalvia: Limoida: Limidae). Invertebrate Systematics, 17: 667-710. Mikkelsen, P. M. & R. Bieler, 2004. Critical catalog and annotated bibliography of marine bivalve records for the Florida Keys. Malacologia, 46(2): 545-623. Shell plate and anatomical “on the half-shell” sketch (Pectinidae) In situ photography (Veneridae) Photographs of living animals (Limidae)