Arthropod diversity associated with the non-indigenous macroalgae Asparagopsis armata Harvey, along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula
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1
Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), Portugal
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2
Estación de Bioloxía Mariña da Graña, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Asparagopsis armata Harvey, 1885 (Rhodophyta: BONNEMAISONIACEAE) is a southern hemisphere endemic seaweed that became widely distributed in Europe. It became invasive (either in its gametophyte or tetrasporophyte stage) along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of the Iberian Peninsula (Boudouresque and Verlaque, 2002; Chualáin et al., 2004). The few studies dealing with the epifaunal assemblages associated with this macroalga showed that crustaceans (particularly amphipods) were a diverse group along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, which motivated this study to explore the whole arthropods assemblage. The main objective of this study was to explore the diversity of arthropods associated with A. armata in two different biogeographical areas of the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. For this aim, we considered two areas: North-west coast of the Iberian Peninsula (i.e. Galicia) and the central-south coast of Portugal. In each area, four intertidal shores were sampled. At each rocky shore, six individuals of A. armata were collected and preserved in formalin (4%). Each sample was washed in a sieve of 0.5 mm mesh size and arthropods were sorted and determined to species level.
A total of 1020 individuals belonging to 72 taxa were identified. The number of taxa estimated by Chao 1 (94 taxa) and Chao 2 (126 taxa) were higher than those observed. These results suggest that A. armata supports a high diversity of arthropods, which is consistent with previous studies dealing with crustacean assemblages associated with this seaweed (Pacios et al., 2011; Soler-Hurtado and Guerra-García, 2011). PERMANOVA analysis showed significant differences in the structure of arthropod assemblages between the two studied biogeographical areas. PERMDISP analysis showed that significant differences between assemblages were due to their different structure rather than for different degree of data dispersion. Finally, SIMPER analysis found an average dissimilarity of 90.56% between the two studied biogeographical areas. The main responsible for this dissimilarity were 9 crustacean taxa (7 of amphipods, 1 isopod and 1 decapod). To evaluate the impact that this invasive seaweed can cause to the recipient ecosystems, posterior studies should be undertaken considering other groups of epiphytic fauna.
References
Boudouresque, C.F., and Verlaque, M. (2002). Biological pollution in the Mediterranean Sea: invasive versus introduced macrophytes. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 44, 32–38. doi: 10.1016/S0025-326X(01)00150-3
Chualáin, F.N., Maggs, C.A., Saunders, G.W., and Guiry, M.D. (2004). The invasive genus Asparagopsis (Bonnemaisoniaceae, Rhodophyta): molecular systematics, morphology, and ecophysiology of Falkenbergia isolates. J. Phycol. 40, 1112–1126. doi: 10.1111/j.1529-8817.2004.03135.x.
Soler-Hurtado, M.M., and Guerra-García, J.M. (2011). Study of the crustacean community associated to the invasive seaweed Asparagopsis armata Harvey, 1855 along the coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Zool. baetica 22, 33–49.
Pacios, I., Guerra-García, J.M., Baeza-Rojano, E., Cabezas, M.P. (2011). The non-native seaweed Asparagopsis armata supports a diverse crustacean assemblage. Mar. Environ. Res. 71, 275–282. doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2011.02.002
Keywords:
Asparagopsis armata,
arthropod,
Biodiversity,
Iberian Peninsula,
Atlantic Ocean
Conference:
XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
2. GLOBAL CHANGES, INVASIVE SPECIES AND CONSERVATION
Citation:
Costa-Garcia
R,
Rubal
M,
Besteiro
C,
Sousa-Pinto
I and
Veiga
P
(2016). Arthropod diversity associated with the non-indigenous macroalgae Asparagopsis armata Harvey, along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00187
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Received:
29 Apr 2016;
Published Online:
03 Sep 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Ricardo Costa-Garcia, Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), Porto, Portugal, r.costa-garcia@hotmail.com