First records and new information on the associations of echinoderms with other phyla in the rocky reefs of northern Chocó, Colombian Pacific.

Giomar Helena Borrero-Pérez,María Juliana Vanegas González

doi:10.3897/zookeys.921.32802

Abstract

Rocky reefs of the northern Colombian Pacific (Chocó) are diverse ecosystems that are poorly studied. Echinoderms are one of the principal groups in these ecosystems with associations to different species, including benthic organisms in which they live and other species that use them as hosts. These relationships include fishes, sponges, seaweeds, cnidarians, polychaetes, bryozoans, crustaceans, mollusks, and other echinoderms. For this area, 22 associations were registered, including commensalism, epibionts and parasitism. This work constitutes the first report for the associations of Eucidaris thouarsii with Suberites aff. ficus, E. thouarsii with Ophiothela mirabilis, and Holothuria (Thymiosicia) impatiens with Encheliophis vermicularis. Associations of Pentaceraster cumingi with Zenopontonia soror, and Ophionereis annulata with Malmgreniella cf. variegata are new records for Colombia. This work also expands the range of hosts previously described for Ophiothela mirabilis and expands the distribution of the association between Diadema mexicanum and Echineulima cf. robusta.

Highlights

Echinoderms are distributed in all coastal environments from tidal pools to rocky and coral reefs, in which they share space and refuge areas with members of their own phylum and other taxa (Sotelo-Casas and Rodríguez-Troncoso 2014)
Others in which echinoderms interact with other organisms and the substrate, for example species that depend on the fixing cavities constructed by sea urchins such as Echinometra lucunter lucunter (Linnaeus, 1758) (Schoppe 1991).The cavities of this sea urchin, from the Caribbean Sea, are used by the brittle star Ophiothrix synoecina (Schoppe, 1996) which is obligated symbiont of E. lucunter lucunter (Schoppe 1996; Schoppe and Werding 1996)
Different types of relationships have been established, including commensalism with animals as the crab Stenorhynchus debilis (Smith, 1871) and a fish of the genus Apogon for which the sea urchin spines served as a refuge (Sotelo-Casas and Rodríguez-Troncoso 2014), and sponges that use the spines of sea urchins as an attachment substrate (Hétérier and De Ridder 2004, Aguirre et al 2011)

Summary

Introduction

Echinoderms are distributed in all coastal environments from tidal pools to rocky and coral reefs, in which they share space and refuge areas with members of their own phylum and other taxa (Sotelo-Casas and Rodríguez-Troncoso 2014). Due to this closeness, different types of interactions have been developed; within these associations are found the ones in which echinoderms depends on other organisms such as sponges and octocorals for protection against predators and for easy access to food (Henkel and Pawlik 2005, Marin et al 2005). Many associations with benthic organisms such as sponges have been described in relation to ophiuroids (Bejarano et al 2004, Marin et al 2005), in some cases they depend on other organisms for their development (Pardo et al 1988)

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Conclusion