MANILA, Philippines—Soft corals in the West Philippine Sea and Benham Bank are among the most diverse globally, according to a newly published international study on soft coral biodiversity and biogeography across the Indo-Pacific.

The findings, featured in Nature Scientific Reports, place the Philippines — particularly the West Philippine Sea and the Philippine Rise — at the center of zooxanthellate soft coral diversity, based on data from over 4,000 samples collected from more than 40 countries between 1998 and 2023.

“These areas are biodiversity hotspots for soft corals,” said Filipino marine biologist Dr. Jue Lalas, one of two Philippine co-authors of the study. “Our waters remain largely unexplored when it comes to soft coral diversity, and that presents a huge opportunity for discovery.”

Samples from the Philippines were sourced from multiple sites including the Kalayaan Island Group, Western Palawan, Pangasinan, Puerto Galera, and Benham Bank. Most were gathered during research projects from 2019 to 2021 by the Interactions of Marine Bionts and Benthic Ecosystems (IMBiBE) Laboratory of the UP Marine Science Institute (MSI).

The research used DNA barcoding to identify species and revealed that the Indo-Australian Archipelago and the Western Indian Ocean are major centers of soft coral richness. The Philippine samples were crucial in highlighting diversity and endemicity in the region.

Despite the dominance of soft corals on Philippine reefs, they remain understudied compared to hard corals, according to Dr. Lalas. IMBiBE head Dr. Maria Vanessa Baria-Rodriguez, the other co-author, has been leading efforts to bridge this research gap by training local scientists in soft coral taxonomy.

With climate change altering reef ecosystems, soft corals — known for their resilience to disturbance — may become even more ecologically significant. “They can serve as indicators of environmental stress,” said Dr. Lalas.

The authors hope the findings will raise awareness of the ecological importance of Philippine reefs and the need to protect them. “We’ve likely underestimated how many species are out there,” the study notes, citing the West Philippine Sea, South China Sea, and Red Sea as areas with potentially undiscovered soft coral species.