Fauna Malesiana Marina

The programme is carried out in the Central Indo-Pacific, the transition zone between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, comprising the following countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The coastal fauna of this area is the richest in the world. Research concentrates on the benthos, going down to at most 200 m (continental shelf)

The programme is divided into two subprogrammes, one taxonomic, the other biogeographic:

1. Fauna Malesiana Marina (s.s.) - In this subprogramme, species and higher taxa are described and revisions made of genera or higher taxa, including phylogenetic reconstructions. Also symbiotic and other relationships between organisms are studied, like pontoniine shrimps and gastropods living in or between sea anemones (Actiniaria), hard and soft corals, molluscs (Bivalvia and Gastropoda) and ascidians. Knowledge acquired from these studies can be and is applied in coastal management. Recent species of large Foraminifera are studied to gain insight in the paleoecology of closely related but extinct species  in limestone sediments.

An example of a externally funded FMM project dealing with the evolution of interspecific associations is given: "Gastropod Parasites and their Coral hosts".

2. Marine biogeography of Southeast Asia - A comparative study is made of species of which the juveniles have a short free-living stage and settle close to the parents and showing a relatively high degree of endemism, and those of which the juveniles have a long pelagic stage and often disperse far before settling down. The historical background of the high diversity of the so-called Indo-Malayan Triangle is studied using three possible models in which sea level fluctuations are the driving force: a) internal sea isolation model (McManus 1985), b) islands-dispersal model (Rosen 1984), c) biotope-isolation model (Potts 1983). The groups with different dispersal capabilities will have reacted differently under the three models.