TOP STORY

A New Coral Species from the Fjords of New Zealand

When most people think of corals, they picture the colorful tropical shallow-water reefs. Yet this familiar image shows only one side of coral diversity. Corals also thrive far from the tropics, in colder, darker and deeper parts of the ocean. Some live on steep walls, rocky shelfs or seamounts, in water where sunlight never or barely reaches and where exploration depends not on divers, but on research vessels, cameras and remotely operated vehicles.

These cold-water corals are less visible than their tropical relatives, but they are likewise ecologically important. Many species form complex three-dimensional structures on the seafloor. Their branches and stalks of the colonies create shelter, feeding grounds and attachment surfaces for other organisms. In this way, corals can act as architects of marine biodiversity. They do not merely inhabit the seafloor; they help shape it.

This hidden ecosystem architects were one of the targets of the CoralNewZ expedition, officially named “Cold-water Coral Biology & Geology off Aotearoa New Zealand”. In the fjords of Fiordland, in southwestern New Zealand, the researchers encountered a delicate soft coral that did not match any known species. The species was later described in the journal Zootaxa as Aquaumbra aranea sp. nov. as only the second species in this genus.

The two known specimens of Aquaumbra aranea were collected in Acheron Passage and Dusky Sound, at depths of 209 and 112 metres. One colony grew on a vertical rock face, the other on a small hard-substrate plateau covered by a thin layer of sediment. These are not remote abyssal plains, but fjord habitats relatively close to land. Still, they remain difficult to access and biologically underexplored. The discovery shows that even coastal environments can harbour species that have remained unknown to science.

In life, Aquaumbra aranea has a fragile, almost ghost-like appearance. Its colony is transparent to translucent, with a faint orange-brown to ochre colour. The soft body forms an upright, branching structure, with polyps arranged around the branches. Its most striking feature is a fine, net-like pattern across the colony surface, especially visible around the polyps. This pattern inspired the species name aranea, the Latin word for spider. The name refers to the spider-web-like structures that make the species so distinctive.

Recognising a new soft coral species requires more than a first impression. Many octocorals can change their shape when contracted, preserved or disturbed. For this reason, taxonomists look closely at features that are less obvious to the naked eye. Among the most important are sclerites: tiny skeletal elements embedded in the tissue. Their shape, size and distribution can reveal differences between species that otherwise appear similar.

In Aquaumbra aranea, these microscopic structures provided key evidence. The species possesses a varied set of sclerites, including curved spindles, irregular bodies, rods and modified capstan-like forms. Some bear cone-shaped tubercles. This combination differs clearly from the sclerite composition of Aquaumbra klapferi, the previously known species of the genus. Together with the colony form and the spider-web-like surface pattern, these characters supported the recognition of A. aranea as a distinct species.

The genetic results were more complicated. The researchers analysed two commonly used markers, the mitochondrial gene mtMutS and nuclear 28S rDNA. The mtMutS marker did not separate Aquaumbra aranea from Aquaumbra klapferi, and 28S rDNA provided only limited resolution. At first, this may seem surprising, but it reflects a well-known challenge in octocoral research. Their mitochondrial genomes often evolve slowly, so closely related species may appear almost identical when only standard barcode markers are used.

This makes the discovery scientifically interesting beyond the species itself. It shows that DNA data are powerful, but not always sufficient on their own. In groups such as octocorals, where common genetic markers may fail to distinguish recently diverged species, classical taxonomy remains essential. Careful observation, microscopy and comparison with known species are not outdated methods; they are still central tools for understanding marine biodiversity.

The discovery of Aquaumbra aranea also changes the picture of where this coral lineage occurs. Aquaumbra klapferi was known from the eastern tropical Pacific, whereas A. aranea was found in temperate fjord systems of the Southwest Pacific. This suggests that the diversity and distribution of Aquaumbridae may be broader than previously assumed. It also raises a familiar question in deep-sea and cold-water biology: how many species are still waiting in museum collections, underwater images or unsampled habitats?

Discovering and naming such species is more than a taxonomic formality. It is the first step toward understanding where they live, how they differ from their relatives and what role they play in the ecosystems of the deep.


Original publication
Korfhage SA, Baums IB, Schnabel KE, Freiwald A. (2026). A new soft coral species, Aquaumbra aranea sp. nov. (Octocorallia: Malacalcyonacea: Aquaumbridae), from Fiordland, Aotearoa (New Zealand). Zootaxa. 5837. 309-324.
doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5837.2.5 

RESEARCH

Placing Geography at HIFMB

The Royal Geographical Society in London is home to one of the largest international meetings of geographers worldwide. Every year, around 3,000 geographers descend on the Victorian building at the corner of Exhibition Road and Kensington Gore, situated between an infamous street of museums, and the Royal Albert Hall. What does this have to do with HIFMB, you might ask? And also, isn’t geography a rather landlocked discipline to feature in the pages of a newsletter about marine biodiversity?

You’d be right in thinking this. The word geography derives from the Greek ‘geographia’ – meaning earth writing, or to write about the earth. Much of geography as a discipline has taken this earth writing seriously – writing about the portion that is land, rather than ocean (even as oceans constitute around 70% of the earth’s surface – an often cited statistic!). This fact has gained scholarly attention, and geographers themselves have written about the bias towards the land and the reasons geographers have not ventured out to sea (access, cost, skill and also interest, particularly for geographers writing about human relations with the earth. The oceans have often been understood to be not as central as the land, where most of us live and work).

Thankfully the tide has turned and geographers are now more readily writing about the seas and oceans, though it remains more marginal, especially in the ‘human’ or ‘social sciences’ side of the discipline. Yet geographical analysis, especially of social, cultural, political worlds at sea offers vital ways to understand some of the ways oceans are lived, industry (ab)uses them, biodiversity is managed, and so on. It helps us to understand that conservation is often spatial (relying on zones), and that global flows of capital create conditions for harm. It helps us to grasp questions of access and rights over deep oceans. And more.

Whilst the Royal Geographical Society is a home to geography (especially British geography), the HIFMB is home to ‘social science’ as a unique part of its interdisciplinary mission. But ‘social science’ is not a discipline. Our social science is shaped by disciplines (and, crucially, interdisciplinarity). Geography plays a large role in the research foci of social science work in the institute and also places it as different from the social science work of other marine research centres.

At this year’s conference in September, HIFMB researchers (Alexa Obando, Nadège Legroux, Laura Barth, Ole Müller, Amelia Hine, Lea Blasey, Paula Satizábal, Cameron Byron, Soli Levi and Kimberley Peters) played a key role in representing the ocean in the sea of landed studies on the schedule. They showed the import of critical work investigating the relationships between people and the earth in oceanic contexts. Presentations were given by HIFMB researchers across career stages, Masters, PhD, Postdocs to Professors, and included HIFMB Alumni – former PhD students now continuing their careers elsewhere.

So, HIFMB is not a space of social science research per se, but of different (inter)disciplinary expertises (including geography) that push that social science agenda. We look forward to where it will grow, and with new staff building the marine social sciences into the future.

Watch this space!

Upcoming Events

Marine Social Science Lecture
Nov 4+5, 2026 | Oldenburg
more info and registration

8th Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life 
in connection with the
6th HIFMB Symposium on Functional Marine Biodiversity
June 21-24, 2027 | Oldenburg
more info

HIFMB INSIDE

HIFMB Awarded as Best Research Environment

The partnerships between the universities of Oldenburg and Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in South Africa exists for more than 25 years. The two universities not only share the fact that they are named after peace noble prize awardees (Carl von Ossietzky, Nelson Mandela), but also much of their scientific profiles, which makes them almost tailor-made partners. With the founding of HIFMB nine years ago, this interdisciplinary alliance was enriched by a marine branch that carried fruit in terms of mutual visits, multiple joint projects funded by national science foundations as well as the Belmont Forum, and an early career exchange program.

Within the latter program, funded by Lower Saxony, this summer saw an international summer school with 24 participants (graduate and PhD students as well as early postdocs), ten of which from Nelson Mandela University. The first week was spent on Spiekeroog island for field work on biodiversity gradients (supervised by five lecturers from UOL and Senckenberg), the second served to analyze biodiversity data in Oldenburg. The program was enriched by multiple lectures that not only addressed biodiversity questions, but delved into broader questions of transdisciplinarity, the benefits of procrastination and the association of science with arts.

This breadth ideally aligned with an international, interdisciplinary and open-minded group of early career scientists, which made this summer school a great success. Not only the feedback by the students and postdocs reflected the positive outcome, it became visible in the many interactions between participants across home countries, disciplines and career stage. Gavin Rishworth, one of the South African lecturers, put it this way: “It was wonderful to see the vibrant interactions amongst summer school participants as well as lecturers, sharing a passion for marine biodiversity. Everyone brought different perspectives and I think it was that diversity which brought new insights into how we experienced the Spiekeroog coast and the data we collected. From these interactions lecturers learnt as much if not more from the ECRs as they hoped to teach them.”

Next to a flawless organization of the summer school by the HIFMB team, this openness and joint field experience certainly were core ingredients for the success of the summer school. But it should not go unnoticed that it additionally helps a lot to work close to one of the best ice-cream places north of the alps. I am not sure how many participants were aware of sea buckthorn as a plant before the course, but sea buckthorn ice-cream definitely has a devoted fan-crowd now across Europe and Southern Africa.

Sincerely, Helmut Hillebrand
Director — Professor of Pelagic Ecology
helmut.hillebrand@hifmb.de

Selected Recent Publications

John U, Clarke D, […] Klemm K, et al. (2026). Towards standardized molecular monitoring of HABs: A consensus guide to qPCR. Harmful Algae 158, 103148.
doi.org/10.106/j.hal.2026.103148

Squire R, Byron C, Legroux N & Peters K. (2026). Towards Oblique Engagements With ‘Tipping Points’: A Critical Geography for Redirecting Debates. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 51, no. 3: e70086.
doi.org/10.1111/tran.70086

Kunze C, Striebel M, Bahlburg D, […] & Hillebrand H. (2026). Quantifying the net effect of biodiversity on ecological stability. Nature Communications 17, 5942. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75047-z

Dodd C, Cawthra HC, Massmann G et al. (2026). Nutrient dynamics and buffering capacity of coastal groundwater-dependent microbialite ecosystems. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 340, 110081.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2026.110081

Turnlund AC, O’Brien PA, Rix L. et al. (2026). Insights into the role of crustose coralline algae microbiomes on coral larval settlement in the Great Barrier Reef. Environmental Microbiome 21, 63.
doi.org/10.1186/s40793-026-00907-6

Mauch T. & Gross T. (2026). Diffusion-driven pattern formation in an opinion dynamical network model. Physical review E 113, 064302.
doi.org/10.1103/mvpk-xhqn

+ more on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uCoLTyAAAAAJ&hl=en

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