Intertidal and shallow water amphipods (Amphipoda: Gammaridea and Corophiidea) from Isla Pérez, Alacranes Reef, southern Gulf of Mexico

Carlos E Paz-Ríos,Pedro-Luis Ardisson,Nuno Simões

doi:10.1590/s0104-64972013000200005

Abstract

Tropical coral reefs are known to exhibit high levels of biodiversity. Amphipod crustaceans are successfully adapted to a wide range of marine habitats in coral reefs, but some regions, such as the Campeche Bank in southern Gulf of Mexico, are poorly studied or even unsurveyed for amphipods. To begin to address this paucity of information, the present study records amphipod species from Isla Perez, an island of the Alacranes Reef National Park, southern Gulf of Mexico. Twenty sites were sampled in the intertidal zone and shallow water adjacent to the island. Thirty-one species of amphipod were identified, 15 of which represented a geographical range extension to the northern Yucatan Peninsula, with four new records for the Mexican south-east sector of the Gulf of Mexico; nine for the Gulf Coast of Mexico; and two for the entire Gulf of Mexico. Significantly, a difference in faunal composition between windward and leeward areas of the intertidal zone was found.

Highlights

Among the main types of coral reef, those that form islands include an intertidal zone, an important habitat for species along the shoreline (Spalding et al, 2001)
The present study aims to improve knowledge of the marine benthic fauna associated with the Alacranes Reef, and forms part of a long-term effort to explore the diversity of poorly characterized taxa in the region
The most abundant species were Colomastix sp., Cymadusa filosa Savigny, 1816, Eudevenopus honduranus Thomas and Barnard, 1983, Melita planaterga Kunkel, 1910, Metharpinia floridana (Shoemaker, 1933), Parhyale hawaiensis (Dana, 1853), and Tethorchestia antillensis Bousfield, 1984, which together accounted for about 90% of the amphipods collected in the intertidal zone and shallow water

Summary

Introduction

Among the main types of coral reef (platform, barrier, fringing, and atoll), those that form islands (e.g. atoll) include an intertidal zone, an important habitat for species along the shoreline (Spalding et al, 2001). The intertidal zone of the coral reef islands (like that of the continent) is an area of transition between the sea and land, which represents an extreme habitat due to the periodic desiccation caused by tidal fluctuations (Knox, 2001). Due to their high biodiversity, coral reefs have been compared to tropical rain forests (Connell, 1978). They display a great diversity of habitats, which are expected to harbor a correspondingly great diversity of species (Miloslavich et al, 2010). The cryptofaunal component of coral reefs is likely vastly underestimated, for instance, due to a high level of endemism such as that detected among the commensal leucothoid amphipods of sponges in southern Florida and the Caribbean (Richards et al, 2012)

Methods

Results

Conclusion