Distribution of sea anemones in the Southwest Atlantic: biogeographical patterns and environmental drivers

Targino, Alessandra Karina Gomes; Gomes, Paula Braga

doi:10.1007/s12526-020-01099-z

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 79 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…At least 10% endemism at the species level within published species inventories is an accepted practice defining biogeographic provinces 45 . Our results are thus in accordance with previous works associating the high endemism in Brazilian and Caribbean coastal habitats to the soft barrier of the ARP 3 , 9 , 17 , 18 , further extending the pattern to the whole animal kingdom. Species sharing among areas in the remaining 11 phyla was also low (Table 3 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…By using an extended database of 175,477 occurrences of 8,375 animal species, we broaden previous works that focused on specific phylum 3 , 9 , 17 , 18 and show that the Amazon River plume (ARP) is a barrier to animal dispersal in the Western Tropical Atlantic. Before discussing the reasons and consequences of such biogeographical feature, we address potential limits intrinsic to our approach.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In higher sea-level periods, such as the current warm period, saline water masses are present below the plume (> 30 m depth) over the continental shelf and exchange of marine organisms could occur in sub-surface, where the large Amazon reef system is present 9 , 14 – 16 . Even though the Amazon river plume (ARP) is considered the main biogeographical barrier responsible for the differences in reef fish 3 , 9 , shallow-water sea anemones 17 and prosobranch gastropods 18 communities between the Caribbean Sea and Northeast Brazil continental shelves, two western boundary systems with distinct oceanographic characteristics 19 – 21 . However, the divergences in species composition among these areas have never been assessed in a broader context extending to all animal phyla.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Amazon River plume, a barrier to animal dispersal in the Western Tropical Atlantic

Tosetto

Bertrand

Neumann‐Leitão

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The dispersal of marine organisms can be restricted by a set of isolation mechanisms including hard barriers or hydrological features. In the Western Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon River discharge has been shown to act as a biogeographical barrier responsible for the differences in reef fish communities between Caribbean Sea and Northeast Brazil continental shelves. Here, we compare the diversity of all Animalia phyla from biogeographic ecoregions along the Tropical Western Atlantic continental shelf to test the hypothesis that the Amazon River plume spatially structures species diversity. For that, we used beta diversity estimators and multivariate ecological analysis on a database of species occurrence of the whole animal kingdom including 175,477 occurrences of 8,375 species from six ecoregions along the Western Tropical Atlantic. Results of the whole animal kingdom and the richest phyla showed that the Caribbean Sea and Tropical Brazil ecoregions are isolated by the Amazon River Plume, broadening and confirming the hypothesis that it acts as a soft barrier to animal dispersal in the Western Tropical Atlantic. Species sharing is larger northwestwards, in direction of the Caribbean than the opposite direction. Beyond species isolation due to local characteristics such as low salinity and high turbidity, our results suggest the dominant northwestward currents probably play a major role in animal dispersion: it enhances the flux of larvae and other planktonic organisms with reduced mobility from Brazil to Caribbean and hinders their contrary movement. Thus, the Amazon area is a strong barrier for taxa with reduced dispersal capacity, while species of pelagic taxa with active swimming may transpose it more easily.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Amazon River plume, a barrier to animal dispersal in the Western Tropical Atlantic

Tosetto

Bertrand

Neumann‐Leitão

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is noteworthy that both ARS and SAC reefs are typically composed of subsets of the Tropical Atlantic biota, as their environmental conditions seem to be challenging for many coral reef species confined to either the ERS or Caribbean. Nevertheless, the spatial connection provided by the SAC may help to explain the biogeographical affinities observed in previous studies among SW Atlantic reef species, including sponges 74 , corals 75 , anemones 76 , gastropods 77 , and reef fish 78 . Furthermore, a multi-taxa study with reef organisms reports a relatively low beta diversity and high nestedness among Brazilian biogeographical provinces, suggesting considerable interconnectivity along the South American reef system 51 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Interconnected marine habitats form a single continental-scale reef system in South America

Carneiro¹,

Neto

Jucá-Queiroz

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Large gaps in reef distribution may hinder the dispersal of marine organisms, interrupting processes vital to the maintenance of biodiversity. Here we show the presence and location of extensive reef habitats on the continental shelf between the Amazon Reef System (ARS) and the Eastern Brazilian Reef System (ERS), two reef complexes off eastern South America. Formations located 20–50 m deep include both biogenic and geogenic structures. The presence of diverse reef assemblages suggests the widespread occurrence of rocky substrates below 50 m. These habitats represent an expansion of both the ARS and ERS and the closure of the only remaining large-scale gap (~ 1000 km) among West Atlantic reef environments. This indicates that the SW Atlantic harbors a single, yet heterogeneous, reef system that stretches for about 4000 km, and thus, represents one of the largest semi-continuous tropical marine ecosystems in the world.

show abstract

“…In the Southwest Atlantic region, Anthopleura species are found in the shallow waters of Brazilian and Caribbean shorelines. Brazil shelters three of the five species found: A. krebsi , A. varioarmata , and A. cascaia [ 25 ]. Of these, A. cascaia is endemic to Brazil, where it is often found between rocky shores, more specifically in mid and inferior eulittoral and infralittoral zones: over and under rocks, sand, tide channels, tide pools, caves, and clefts [ 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Distribution and Biochemical Characterization of Serine Peptidase Inhibitors in the Venom of the Brazilian Sea Anemone Anthopleura cascaia Using Mass Spectrometry Imaging

da Silva,

Valladão,

Beraldo-Neto

et al. 2023

Marine Drugs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sea anemones are known to produce a diverse array of toxins with different cysteine-rich peptide scaffolds in their venoms. The serine peptidase inhibitors, specifically Kunitz inhibitors, are an important toxin family that is believed to function as defensive peptides, as well as prevent proteolysis of other secreted anemone toxins. In this study, we isolated three serine peptidase inhibitors named Anthopleura cascaia peptide inhibitors I, II, and III (ACPI-I, ACPI-II, and ACPI-III) from the venom of the endemic Brazilian sea anemone A. cascaia. The venom was fractionated using RP-HPLC, and the inhibitory activity of these fractions against trypsin was determined and found to range from 59% to 93%. The spatial distribution of the anemone peptides throughout A. cascaia was observed using mass spectrometry imaging. The inhibitory peptides were found to be present in the tentacles, pedal disc, and mesenterial filaments. We suggest that the three inhibitors observed during this study belong to the venom Kunitz toxin family on the basis of their similarity to PI-actitoxin-aeq3a-like and the identification of amino acid residues that correspond to a serine peptidase binding site. Our findings expand our understanding of the diversity of toxins present in sea anemone venom and shed light on their potential role in protecting other venom components from proteolysis.

show abstract

Distribution of sea anemones in the Southwest Atlantic: biogeographical patterns and environmental drivers

Cited by 5 publications

References 79 publications

The Amazon River plume, a barrier to animal dispersal in the Western Tropical Atlantic

The Amazon River plume, a barrier to animal dispersal in the Western Tropical Atlantic

Interconnected marine habitats form a single continental-scale reef system in South America

Spatial Distribution and Biochemical Characterization of Serine Peptidase Inhibitors in the Venom of the Brazilian Sea Anemone Anthopleura cascaia Using Mass Spectrometry Imaging

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About