Abstract
Epibiotic associations can result in co-introductions of non-indigenous species, which may affect ecosystems in several ways. In fouling communities of three estuaries in southern Brazil, a number of amphipods was found to harbour a dense coverage of epibionts. Three different species, the two globally widespread caprellids Caprella equilibra and Paracaprella pusilla, as well as the ischyrocerid Jassa valida, had been colonised by diatoms. Further scanning electron microscope analyses assigned these diatoms to 14 different species that had previously been reported from benthic habitats. This is one of the scarce records of diatoms attached to amphipods. The occurrence of the diatom Amphora helenensis represents the first report for Brazilian waters as well as the second record for the whole SW Atlantic Ocean. As some diatoms were associated with common fouling amphipods, a possible regional spread aided by these crustaceans seems likely. Possible effects of this amphipod-diatom association on the animals and their implications for the underlying ecosystems of this remain to be elucidated.
Highlights
Human-based transport mechanisms of non-indigenous species (NIS) are often investigated, but processes of co-introduction through associations like parasitism or epibiosis are still understudied [1,2]
Agardh) Mereschkowsky, 1903, in which valves were 25–11 μm long, but usually ranging from 30 μm to 53 μm, even when our material is compared to another variety of this species, A. coffeaeformis var. aponina (Kützing) Archibald & Schoeman, 1984
While some diatoms are known to be specialised epizoic on planktonic copepods [27], only a few studies have dealt with the growth of diatoms on benthic invertebrates
Summary
Human-based transport mechanisms of non-indigenous species (NIS) are often investigated, but processes of co-introduction through associations like parasitism or epibiosis are still understudied [1,2]. These communities are known to be comparably rich in NIS, which frequently outcompete native species in the colonisation of these substrates [11]. Some amphipods are known to bear different epibionts that, in some cases, would benefit from their basibiont movement without harming the host [21,22,23,24].
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