Prospective floristics of epiphytic diatoms on Rhodophyta from the Southern Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

Studies on epiphytic diatoms can be considered somewhat lacking worldwide, mainly because of the enormous scientific research potential around them, and there is still much to do concerning floristics alone. Particularly for the Mexican coasts, mainly in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Thus, our objective was to determine the epiphytic diatom floristics for several species of Rhodophyta from the coast of Veracruz state (México). Diatoms sampled from specimens of six taxa of Rhodophyta were observed in permanent mountings, under light microscopy. A total 115 diatom taxa were identified, that support our expectancy of a potential species richness much higher on red algae hosts. A presence absence similarity measurement suggested that a single diatom assemblage was hosted in the six red algae taxa. The species composition is highly similar to epiphytic diatom assemblages from NW Mexico, albeit six taxa are new records for Mexican littorals. A photographic catalog of the identified epiphytic diatoms is provided.