Biodiversity of Echinoderms on Papanoa Bays

Abstract

Mexico is the habitat of 10% of echinoderm species on the planet, the Mexican Pacific is important since it houses 52% of the species registered for Mexico, in addition to endemic species that it shares with the Indo-Pacific. The state of Guerrero has 135 species of echinoderms, while Oaxaca 94 and Chiapas 15, being the state with the greatest diversity, presenting a greater number of species compared to the states of the Mexican South Pacific, however, both its terrestrial and aquatic areas have been little studied and especially in the group of echinoderms. The objective of this study is to know the diversity of echinoderm species that inhabit Bahías de Papanoa, Guerrero-Mexico, which includes a total of eleven collection sites, has a complex variety of environments such as coral reefs, sandy and rocky bottoms in a approximate linear length of 15 km. During a year of monthly sampling, direct capture, sweep, random and transect search techniques were used, with Scuba and free diving, in dives from 0 to 20 meters deep in a seawater temperature range of 27 to 31 °C. There are 55 species of echinoderms recorded, such as: Ophiocoma sp, Phataria sp, Pentaceraster sp, Cucumaria sp, Astropyga sp, Meoma sp, Diadema sp, Afrocucumis ovulum, Pseudocnus californicus, Neocucumis veleronis and Holothuria imitans. The biodiversity of echinoderms in the complexity of their various environments and substrates in the 15 km length studied in Bahías de Papanoa, indicate that this locality in the state of Guerrero has the possibility of new species, this area represents 3% of the marine coastline for the entire state of Guerrero, it houses 34.5% of the echinoderms of the Mexican South Pacific, and only in Bahías de Papanoa there are 58.3% of species with respect to the 96 species of the specimens deposited in the National Collection of Echinoderms (CNE- ICMyL-UNAM) for the entire state of Guerrero. With these results, it is a priority to continue studies on taxonomy, distribution, ecology, molecular systematics, diversity, physiology, fishery resources, among others, in this important area of ​​the Mexican South Pacific.

Keywords: Echinodermata; Guerrero; Bahías de Papanoa