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Documented Biodiversity  in the Indian River Lagoon (based on Swain et al. 1995)*

The original IRL Species Inventory, first compiled in 1995, listed a total of 2493 different species of plants, animals and protists.  Of these, animals comprised the greatest proportion of species in the Inventory (71.4%), with 1779 species grouped into 20 phyla.  Plants were grouped into 4 phyla, consisting of 289 different species;  and the Protista (17.0%) consisted of 425 species in 4 phlya.  No data are available for Kingdoms Monera (bacteria) and Fungi (fungus). * "There is no doubt that some taxa are more complete and thoroughly documented than others........  Taxa for which contributors had a high degree of confidence with complete lists include fishes, birds, mollusks, chrysophytes, dinoflagellates, rhizopods, ectoprocts, sipunculids, echinoderms, and mammals.  Other taxonomic groups, including vascular plants, amphibians and reptiles, and marine macroalgae are relatively complete but could benefit from increased sampling over wider areas of the lagoon.  Other taxa are, at the very best, partial lists, for example sponges and chaetognaths. "  (Swain et al. 1995)