Table 1. Summary of the diversity, state of knowledge, and expertise of the main taxonomic groups within the Tropical East Pacific subregion of South America.
| Taxonomic group | No. species1 | State of knowledge | No. introduced species | No. experts | No. ID guides2 |
| Domain Archaea | |||||
| Domain Bacteria (including Cyanobacteria) | 18 | 1 | ND | 0 | 0 |
| Domain Eukarya | |||||
| Kingdom Chromista | |||||
| Phaeophyta | 40 | 3 | ND | 4 | 0 |
| Kingdom Plantae | |||||
| Chlorophyta | 84 | 3 | ND | 4 | 0 |
| Rhodophyta | 183 | 3 | ND | 4 | 0 |
| Angiospermae | 10 | 4 | ND | 15 | 3 |
| Kingdom Protista (Protozoa) | |||||
| Dinomastigota (Dinoflagellata) | 132 | 2 | ND | 1 | 0 |
| Foraminifera | 164 | 2 | ND | 2 | 0 |
| Kingdom Animalia | |||||
| Porifera | 42 | 3 | ND | 2 | 0 |
| Cnidaria | 110 | 2 | ND | 10 | 2 |
| Platyhelminthes | 29 | 1 | ND | 0 | 0 |
| Mollusca | 875 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Annelida | 1894 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Crustacea | 863 | 2 | ND | 8 | 2 |
| Bryozoa | 45 | 1 | ND | 1 | 0 |
| Echinodermata | 223 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Urochordata (Tunicata) | 18 | 2 | 1 | ND | 0 |
| Other invertebrates | 61 | 1 | ND | 3 | 1 |
| Vertebrata (Pisces) | 1212 | 4 | 10 | 20 | 6 |
| Other vertebrates | 89 | 5 | 71 | 17 | |
| SUBTOTAL | 6092 | ||||
| TOTAL REGIONAL DIVERSITY 3 | 6714 |
1
Sources of the reports: databases, scientific literature, books, field guides, technical reports.
2
Identification guides cited in Text S1.
3
Total regional diversity, including all taxonomic groups as reported in Table S3.