No abstract

This paper reports the first record of the endangered cerianthid Ceriantheomorphe brasiliensis in the State of Paraná, southern Brazil. The observed distribution of the species over Paranaguá Bay is described and some aspects of its conservation are discussed.

Bottom trawling is a large-scale fishing activity along the Brazilian coast, but its effects on benthic infauna are still poorly known. This is the first experimental evaluation of benthic responses to bottom trawling along the Brazilian coast. We tested the effects of trawling on macroinfaunal assemblages on the inner continental shelf off Paraná (southern Brazil) by using a sampling design with adjacent trawl and control areas. We hypothesized that if trawl fishing has a negative effect then we should expect lower numbers of species and lower benthic densities after an experimental trawling. Sampling was conducted at adjacent sites within each area to minimize confounding due to spatial variation. Five sites were sampled at a control, and five at an experimental area for infaunal and sedimentological variables. Sampling was carried out just before and one hour after experimental trawling. Multidimensional scaling followed by a PERMANOVA did not show any clear variation tendencies in the structure of the benthic assemblages in the impacted area before and after trawling. However, variance analysis showed a significant and unexpected increase in infaunal total density, in the density of the numerically dominant species (except for the polychaetes Capitella sp. and Loandalia tricuspis) and in species richness in the experimental area. Conversely, no significant variations were recorded in the control area. We suggest that the overall increase in benthic density after a disturbance is correlated with the reworking of the sediment matrix and benefits the suspension-feeders after sediment resuspension.

In this article, our knowledge of the geographic distribution of Grania species is expanded by describing seven new species, Grania bekkouchei sp. nov., Grania brasiliensis sp. nov., Grania capensis sp. nov., Grania chilensis sp. nov., Grania cryptica sp. nov., Grania hinojosai sp. nov., and Grania simonae sp. nov., from poorly investigated regions of the Southern Hemisphere, plus two new species, Grania carolinensis sp. nov. and Grania unitheca sp. nov., from off the east coast of the USA. An immature achaetous specimen that we call Grania cf. levis was also included. The newly generated data were combined with a previously published data set in order to update the hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships among Grania species. All new species except G. cryptica sp. nov. are supported by both morphological and molecular data. In addition, we find that G. chilensis sp. nov. is structured in at least four distinct populations along the Chilean coast. The species described from South Africa form a monophyletic clade where two are morphologically indistinguishable but diverging in both mitochondrial and nuclear ribosomal genes, and thus we describe them as different species, G. bekkouchei sp. nov. and G. cryptica sp. nov. Among the North Carolinian species, G. unitheca sp. nov. is indicated as a close relative of Grania monospermatheca Erséus & Lasserre, 1976, and G. carolinensis sp. nov. is indicated as a close relative of G. cf. levis. The updated phylogeny is strongly concordant with geographical species distributions, thus supporting a low level of dispersal within this genus, as has previously been hypothesized. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London