Checklist das ascídias (Tunicata, Ascidiacea) do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil

Abstract

Ascidians are marine organisms that, for the most part, are found adhered to hard substrates from coastal to abyssal regions. Despite being chordates, their body plan is very modified to suit their life-style. In Brazil, ascidians are best studied in the State of São Paulo, both in terms of biodiversity and ecology. In that state, coastal waters of the municipality of São Sebastião are particularly well studied because the Marine Biology Research station of the University of São Paulo established there has attracted researchers since the 1960s. Knowledge of ascidians has been increasing continuously during the last 50 years, and today, 66 species are recorded from the state of São Paulo. Nonetheless, there are still important areas that need study, such as the extreme north and south in that state, where the ascidians have almost never been sampled, especially on the many coastal islands. Also, deeper regions of the continental shelf and slope are also poorly studied. Developing additional human resources is necessary for the continuity of biodiversity studies and today, no research group is studying ascidians in the State of São Paulo. Resumo: Ascídias são organismos marinhos que, em sua maioria, vivem fixados a substratos consolidados desde as regiões costeiras até às grandes profundidades. Apesar de serem cordados, apresentam um plano corporal adulto muito modificado em função de seu hábito de vida. O Estado de São Paulo é o que apresenta o melhor conhecimento da fauna de ascídias, tanto em termos de sua biodiversidade como em aspectos ecológicos. No estado, a região do município de São Sebastião foi a mais estudada em função da presença do Centro de Biologia Marinha da USP, que atraiu muitos pesquisadores desde a década de 1960. Nos últimos 50 anos houve um crescimento constante no conhecimento da fauna paulista de ascídias, que conta atualmente com 66 espécies registradas. No entanto, ainda existem lacunas importantes, pois o extremo norte e o litoral sul do estado ainda têm uma fauna de ascídias praticamente desconhecida, especialmente aquela relacionada às ilhas costeiras. As regiões mais profundas da plataforma continental e talude também foram pouco exploradas. Há necessidade de formação de recursos humanos para manter a continuidade dos estudos de biodiversidade, pois atualmente não existe nenhum grupo de pesquisa consolidado trabalhando com Ascidiacea no estado. Palavras-chave: Ascidiacea, biota paulista, Programa BIOTA/FAPESP.

Fifty years of ascidian biodiversity research in São Sebastião, Brazil

“…Species richness for ascidians in the SSC is also comparable to that in False Bay (58 species), the richest site in South Africa (Awad et al , 2002) and Bocas del Toro, Panamá (58 species), considered a very diverse region in the Caribbean (Rocha et al , 2005a). Ascidian richness from SS comprises more than half of all the ascidian species known from Brazil (Rodrigues et al , 1999) and 94% of the species of the State of São Paulo (Rocha et al , 2011). Today, the SSC is apparently a region of high diversity for many groups, as shown by a compilation of a total of 733 species of invertebrates and algae in just one bay (Araçá Bay) within the channel (Amaral et al , 2010).…”

“…By the end of that decade, an important research programme was created, with the ambitious goal of describing the biodiversity of the State of São Paulo. The BIOTA programme compiled a first series of reports of up-to-date data on known diversity for many taxa, including ascidians (Rodrigues et al, 1999), and a new series of papers provided additional information (Dias & Rodrigues, 2004;Dias et al, 2006Dias et al, , 2008Dias et al, , 2009Lotufo & Dias, 2007;Bonnet & Rocha, 2011;Rocha et al, 2011).…”

Temporal variation of the gammaridean fauna (Crustacea, Amphipoda) associated with the sponge Mycale angulosa (Porifera, Demospongiae) in southeastern Brazil

“…In contrast, in M. microsigmatosa at three sites in Rio de Janeiro State, the most frequent amphipods were Elasmopus pectenicrus (family Melitidae), which was not very common in the present study, and Leucothoe spinicarpa (family Leucothoidae) (Ribeiro et al, 2003), which was not found here. The absence of members of Leucothoidae in the samples may be related to the high abundance of solitary ascidians in the sampling location and in the area as a whole, especially Phallusia nigra (Rocha et al, 2011), a tunicate in which leucothoids preferably shelter (Thiel, 2000).…”

Biodiversity of Sessile Fauna on Rocky Shores of Coastal Islands in Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil

“…The ascidian commun ity in Brazil is typically tropical with little overlap with the Argentina and Patagonia fauna [44]. The presence of these species in Santa Catarina state subtropical waters is probably due to the mu ltip le introductions of the species in the southern coasts [45,46] where major harbor facilit ies are located. The lack of historical records prevents us from defining the status of many species that remain cryptogenic, but we believe the develop ment of molecu lar studies of global scope will reveal invasion of exotic species in the western Atlantic, some of them already recorded in Brazilian waters.…”