Hydroids from Guinean Bissau waters (north-west Africa)
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1
Universidade de Vigo, Spain
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2
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Spain
The marine fauna of West Africa remains poorly known, mainly in waters deeper than 30 m (Decker et al, 2004) despite this area includes one of the most diverse and productive marine areas of the world oceans linked to upwelling phenomena. Guinea Bissau is located between two highly productive ecosystems, the Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) in the North, and the Guinea Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME) in the South, and harbour a rich and specific marine fauna (Le Loeuff & Van Cosel, 1998; García Isarch et al, 2009).
Hydroid fauna of Guinea Bissau was previously studied by Vervoort (1959), reporting 20 species collected during the Danish Atlantide expedition in the Tropical West Africa, and by Gili et al. (1989), which include 31 species collected by the Spanish surveys carried out in waters of Guinea Bissau, Namibia and South Africa.
Between October and November of 2008, the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) in collaboration with the Centro de Investigación Pesqueira Aplicada (CIPA) conducted a fishing survey (BISSAU-0810) in waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Guinea Bissau. During the survey, carried out on board of the Spanish R/V Vizconde de Eza, 100 stations were sampled with a commercial otter trawl between 20 and 1000 m depth, following a random stratified sampling methodology. By-catch was carefully sorted on board and hydroids were preserved in 70% ethanol for further studies.
A total of 8616 colonies of hydroids were collected at 30 of the 100 stations sampled between 21 – 895 m depth. The checklist includes 75 species belonging to 18 different families. Sertulariidae showed the highest species richness (17 species), followed by Campanulariidae (12 species), Haleciidae (7 species) and Aglaopheniidae and Plumulariidae (6 species). Sertulariidae was also the most abundant family (3765 colonies) and include species that built big colonies with their hydrorrhiza modified for anchoring in soft-bottoms. Eudendriidae, the second family in terms of abundance, develops a different strategy and it is represented by small colonies that growth epibionts mainly on other hydroid species and bryozoans. Idiellana pristis (1407 colonies), Eudendrium capillare (1233 colonies), Diphasia digitalis (1002 colonies), Lytocarpia myriophyllum (554 colonies), Sertularia loculosa (538 colonies) and Hincksella cylindrica (535 colonies) were the most abundant species. Other 8 species showed also comparatively high abundance, with more than 100 colonies each one.
The analysis of geographical distributions showed that the Bissauan hydroid fauna is dominated by two main components: species with wide distribution (cosmopolitan, circumglobal, circumtropical and non-classifiable; 56%) and Atlantic species (amphi–Atlantic, eastern Atlantic and Atlantic–Mediterranean; 44%).
References
Decker C, Griffiths C, Prochazka K, Ras C, Whitfield A (eds) (2004) Proc Mar BIodiv Sub-Saharan Afr, Cape Twon, South Africa
García Isarch E, Burgos Cantos C, Sobrino Yraolaet I, Mendes de Almeida A, Barri I, Assau Nahada V, Gomes Correia Funny R, Joaquim Gomes M (2009) Reprot IEO Cádiz-CIPA:204 pp (unpublished)
Gili JM, Vervoort W, Pagés F (1989) Sci Mar 53(1):67–112
Le Loeuff P & Van Cosel R (1998) Acta Oecol 19(3):309–321
Vervoort W (1959) Atlantide Report Scient Res Danish Exped coasts trop W Afr 1945–1946, 5:211–325
Keywords:
Biodiversity,
Cnidaria,
benthic hydroids,
Guinea Bissau,
Northwest Africa
Conference:
XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
1. ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS
Citation:
Gil González
M and
Ramil Blanco
F
(2016). Hydroids from Guinean Bissau waters (north-west Africa).
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00166
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Received:
30 Apr 2016;
Published Online:
03 Sep 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Mrs. Marta Gil González, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Pontevedra, 36310, Spain, martag_g@hotmail.com