Marine biodiversity in French Guiana: Estuarine, coastal, and shelf ecosystems under de influence of Amazonian waters

Abstract

Marine biodiversity in French Guiana is strongly influenced by the amagon River waters of the river Amazon, which constitute a major structuring factor for the estuarine, coastal, and shelf marine ecosystems. Moreover, the marked seasonal and interannual variabilities play important roles in the stability or fluctuations in the environmental parameters that influence biodiversity at the ecological, population, and genetic levels. Previous and ongoing studies of the marine and littoral biota relate mostly to commercial marine species, protected species in danger of extinction and, specially, to the biodiversity and functioning of local coastal and littoral ecosystems such as estuaries, mudflats, sandy beaches and, particularly, littoral mangroves. A more integrated approach involving local, regional, and international scientific collaboration is needed for a better assessment and understanding of marine biodiversity. Such studies would benefit from international cooperation that would allow the gathering of new information and the comparison of previous data, the organization of common oceanographic surveys, the homogenisation of analytical protocols, and also favour the exchange of scientists and postgraduate students for a real transfer of ideas, techniques, and know-how. Moreover, research on the comparative biodiversity of analogous littoral and marine ecosystems in different parts of South America would allow a more accurate estimate of marine biodiversity on a continental scale.KEYWORDS: French Guiana, marine biodiversity, coastal systems, Amazon river waters, Intertropical Convergence Zone, ecological and conservation studies RESUMEN La biodiversidad marina en la Guyana Francesa está fuertemente influenciada por los aportes amazónicos, los cuales constituyen un factor estructurante de los ecosistemas estuarianos, costeros y de plataforma continental. Además, debido a las cambiantes condiciones meteorológicas y oceanográficas, la variabilidad estacional e inter-anual puede jugar un rol importante en la estabilidad o la modificación de los parámetros medio-ambientales que afectarían la biodiversidad ecológica, poblacional y genética de los ecosistemas locales. Los estudios llevados a cabo sobre la biología de las especies marinas y litorales se refieren principalmente a especies de interés comercial, especies protegidas en peligro de extinción, y sobre todo a las características del funcionamiento de ciertos ecosistemas costeros y litorales característicos como los estuarios, bancos de fango, playas de arena, y sobre todo los manglares. La idea de estudios o series de estudios mejor coordinados entre sí a nivel regional e internacional, emerge como una necesidad para una mejor estimación y comprensión de la biodiversidad marina. Estos estudios beneficiarían de una importante cooperación internacional que pemitiese comparar e integrar el conjunto de datos obtenidos en el pasado, llevar a cabo misiones oceanográficas conjuntas, mutualizar y homogeneizar los protocolos analíticos, y favorecer el interca...

Spatial structure of a leaf-removing crab population in a mangrove of North-Brazil

“…This scarcity of reports is not due to the lack of studies on Neotropical mangrove ecosystems, which have increased drastically in the past 30 years. Many studies have reported the presence of U. cordatus in other areas, e.g., Belize (Middleton and McKee 2001;McKeon and Feller 2004), Jamaica (Warner 1969), Costa Rica (Delgado et al 2001), Panama (Sousa et al 2003), Colombia (Cantera et al 1999), French Guyana (Artigas et al 2003). However, the biology of this crab has seldom been studied outside Brazil, probably due to either a lack of understanding of its importance in mangrove forests or the absence of large U. cordatus populations as in Brazilian forests.…”

New records of brittle stars from French Guiana: Ophiactis savignyi and the alien species Ophiothela mirabilis (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea)

“…In fact, salutary marine habitat is largely absent from the Guianese continental shelf, where the Amazon plume creates a 10 m deep surface layer of turbid low-salinity water (Artigas et al, 2003) and deposits 5 m thick mud-banks that extend offshore to the 20 m isobath (Allison et al, 2000). In fact, salutary marine habitat is largely absent from the Guianese continental shelf, where the Amazon plume creates a 10 m deep surface layer of turbid low-salinity water (Artigas et al, 2003) and deposits 5 m thick mud-banks that extend offshore to the 20 m isobath (Allison et al, 2000).…”

Early Pleistocene lineages of Bagre bagre (Linnaeus, 1766) (Siluriformes: Ariidae), from the Atlantic coast of South America, with insights into the demography and biogeography of the species

“…7). While Bagre bagre is extremely common in the region influenced by the Amazon Plume (Le Bail et al, 2000;Artigas et al, 2003), B. marinus is rare or absent from this area (Pinheiro et al, 2006;Garcia Júnior et al, 2010) (Fig. 7).…”

“…Bagre bagre is an important fishery resource in northern Brazil (Pinheiro & Fredou 2004;Isaac-Nahum, 2006), as well as the Guianas and Suriname (Le Bail et al, 2000;Artigas et al, 2003), but is rare or absent from commercial catches on the eastern and southeastern coast of Brazil (Freitas Netto et al, 2002;Lopes et al, 2002). The adequate definition of a species is a decisive step in the evaluation of its conservation status, and the development of effective management strategies (Marceniuk et al, 2015).…”