This study aims to assess the soft corals community around Mauritius and Rodrigues Island due to the limited research on the abundance and diversity of soft corals in the area. Seven soft corals species are newly reported from Mauritian waters. Triplicates of 5-metreline transect were used to survey soft corals at twelve different monitoring sites. Of the sites monitored for soft coral occurrence, the highest Margalef richness index and Shannon index (H’) values were obtained at Port Mathurin for Rodrigues Island and at Les Salines for Mauritius. Identification was carried out using both morphological characters and a DNA-based marker. The morphological identification process was based on the external form and colouration, type of colony growth; the type of polyps and colonies and sclerites analysis. 41 different species showed dissimilar characteristics, and results grouped the colonies to three different families; 32 colonies of Alcyoniidae, 3 of Nephtheidae and 6 of Xeniidae were obtained. To ascertain morphological classification, the longest non-coding region of the mitochondrial COI-COII intergenic spacer (IGS) (consisting of 122 nucleotides) was used to construct a molecular phylogeny that included 21 species of octocorals. The COI-COII IGS phylogeny recovered 5 well supported clades, which did not tally with the cladogram based on morphological characters. Three dendrograms based on morphological characters were constructed where the first one involved mapping of all the morphological characters onto the tree, the second one was based mainly on the type of sclerites present and the third one based on the collection depth of the samples. The dendrogram based on morphological markers clustered all the soft corals from the Alcyoniidae family aside from the other families. The second dendrogram clustered all the soft corals from the genus Sinularia, Lobophytum, Sarcophyton as well as Cladiella kashmani together, away from the soft corals with distinct sclerite form. Furthermore, the third dendrogram clustered the soft corals into 2 major clades, one clade clustering the soft corals which are ubiquitous and a larger clade including all soft corals collected from a depth of 0 m to above 20 m. As documented by other studies on octocorals, construction of the phylogenetic tree has led to an appreciation of the importance of genetic work which has been overlooked while using traditional morphological characters.

由于对该地区软珊瑚的丰度和多样性的研究有限，本研究旨在评估毛里求斯和罗德里格斯岛周围的软珊瑚群落。毛里求斯水域新报告了七种软珊瑚。一式三份的 5 米线横断面用于调查十二个不同监测地点的软珊瑚。在监测软珊瑚发生的地点中，最高的 Margalef 丰富度指数和香农指数 (H') 值在罗德里格斯岛的马图林港和毛里求斯的 Les Salines 获得。使用形态特征和基于 DNA 的标记进行鉴定。形态识别过程基于外部形态和颜色、菌落生长类型；息肉的类型和菌落和巩膜分析。41 种不同的物种表现出不同的特征，结果将菌落分为三个不同的科；获得32个Alcyoniidae、3个Nephtheidae和6个Xeniidae的菌落。为了确定形态学分类，使用线粒体 COI-COII 基因间隔区 (IGS)（由 122 个核苷酸组成）的最长非编码区来构建包括 21 种八珊瑚的分子系统发育。COI-COII IGS 系统发育恢复了 5 个支持良好的进化枝，这与基于形态特征的进化枝图不符。构建了三个基于形态特征的树状图，其中第一个涉及将所有形态特征映射到树上，第二个主要基于存在的巩膜类型，第三个基于样品的收集深度。基于形态标记的树状图将 Alcyoniidae 科的所有软珊瑚聚集在一起，除了其他科。第二个树状图聚集了该属的所有软珊瑚Sinularia、Lobophytum、Sarcophyton和Cladiella kashmani一起，远离软珊瑚，形成明显的硬骨。此外，第三个树状图将软珊瑚聚集成 2 个主要的进化枝，一个进化枝聚集了无处不在的软珊瑚，一个更大的进化枝包括从 0 m 到 20 m 以上的深度收集的所有软珊瑚。正如其他关于八珊瑚的研究所记录的那样，系统发育树的构建使人们认识到遗传工作的重要性，而遗传工作在使用传统形态特征时被忽视了。