Abstract

1,500 mollusc species, 350 decapod crustacean species, 81 echinoderm species and 30 species new to science : those are the first results of the inventories carried out in Guadeloupe and Saint-Martin in 2012, that are already confirm-ing the exceptional biodiversity of those French overseas territories. Those inventories led by the National Park of Guade-loupe and the Saint-Martin National Nature Reserve were funded by the French Ministry of Ecology and the European Union. French and American universities, the French National Museum of Natural History and the Florida Museum of Natural History have combined their efforts and know-how to complete this unprecedented scientific mission suc-cessfully. A total of 60 scientists, naturalists and protected areas managers and staff have worked in the field for over a month. Numerous sampling techniques have been implemented to prospect each ecological niche, day and night (underwater vacuum filtering and brushing baskets, dredging, baited traps, yabby pumps and soil sifting). Thus, marine protected areas managers will be provided with baselines to build conservation actions upon. Researchers aim to estab-lish a “new generation” collection with molecular sequencing that will feed in scientific publications. The taxonomic groups that have been surveyed through these campaigns play a key role in the functioning of tropical marine ecosys-tems, and there is a need to build a better knowledge of their diversity to preserve them better. In that regard, compli-mentary inventories of marine biodiversity must be developed, including other poorly studied compartments (deep sea) but also other groups (sponges, bryozoans and ascidians).

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