Los equinodermos (Echinodermata) de bahía Chamela, Jalisco, México

Abstract

Forty species of echinoderms were collected in the intertidal and shallow subtidal zones of 14 sites of bahía Chamela. Of particular importance are 7 new records of species for the coast of Jalisco. A non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis and the Jaccard’s similarity index identified different groups and isolated entities according to the contribution and the frequency of species of 4 classes of echinoderms in the bay and in other localities of the Mexican Tropical Pacific (MTP). The highest similarity of species was with the localities of the Gulf of California. The indices of average taxonomic distinctness (Δ+) and the variation in the taxonomic distinctness (Λ+) were estimated to analyze the diversity of echinoderms at the taxonomic levels of species, genus, family, order and class for each site within the bay and for some localities of the MTP according to the number of higher taxonomic hierarchies and the variability of its taxonomic diversity. The species richness of bahía Chamela represents 20% of the total diversity of echinoderms of the intertidal and shallow subtidal zones of the MTP; this is an indicator of its importance to the contribution of the taxonomic diversity of this region.