Catalogue and description of the coccolithophores (Haptophyta, coccolithophyceae), calcareous, scale-bearing microalgae, in new zealand waters

A checklist is presented of coccolithophores previously recorded from the New Zealand region; it contains 80 species, plus three different life-cycle forms of two of these species. Studies of extant coccolithophores, based on 160 samples collected from 10 oceanographic surveys, between January 2009 and February 2012, revealed a total of 50 taxa, with two taxa as first records for the region (Cyrtosphaera lecaliae Kleijne, 1992 and Syraco-sphaera azureaplaneta Young et al., 2018, recorded here for the first time). The 50 taxa recorded in this study are illustrated with 157 scanning electron micrographs in 29 plates. Of the 50 taxa, 45 were robust hetero-coccolithophores, with two having both holo– and heterococcolith-bearing forms, and the remaining three were holococcolithophores. Forty-two taxa in the heterococcolith-bearing group were placed in seven families in the four orders: Coccolithales, Isochrysidales, Syracosphaerales and Zygodiscales. Five taxa were in-certae sedis (four families). Three holococcolithophore taxa were placed in the family Calyptrosphaeraceae. Emiliania huxleyi (Lohmann, 1902) Hay & Mohler in Hay et al., 1967 was the most plentiful and widespread taxon. On three occasions, in spring 2009 and two consecutive summers in 2011 and 2012, this species formed massive blooms off the central east coast of New Zealand, two of which (spring 2009 and summer 2011) were visible in NASA’s satellite observations. Seven other relatively widespread species recorded here were: Reticulofenestra parvula (Okada & McIntyre, 1977) Biekart, 1989, Umbellosphaera tenuis type II (Kamptner, 1937) Paasche, 1955, Syracosphaera molischii Schiller, 1925, Syracosphaera anthos (Lohmann, 1912) Janin, 1987, Gephyrocapsa ericsonii McIntyre & Bé, 1967, Syracosphaera mediterranea (Lohmann, 1902) Triantaphyllou et al., 2015, and Calcidiscus leptoporus (Murray & Blackman, 1898) Loeblich & Tappan, 1978. Reticulo-fenestra parvula was the second species in spring 2009 to be found in bloom proportion (up to 571,000 cells l-1), but the bloom was limited to Kaikoura on the east coast of New Zealand. In this study Syracosphaera spp. were the most speciose genus, with 17 species, and one life-cycle form of one of these species, which made up about 36% of all extant coccolithophores identified. Most of the other genera, however, had few species which occurred only at a few stations. This monograph provides a diagnostic description of all 50 extant coccolithophores identified in New Zealand waters, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and gives information on cell abundances and distribution in the New Zealand region.