Occurrence of marine sponge Chelonaplysilla delicata Pulitzer-Finali & Pronzato, 1999 (Porifera: Demospongiae: Darwinellidae) from the Andaman Islands and the Indian Ocean with a baseline information of epifauna on a mesophotic shipwreck

During a biodiversity assessment on an upper mesophotic artificial reef of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Shipwreck: HMIS Sophie Marie/HMIS SM), a single specimen of sponge Chelonaplysilla delicata was recorded. Our finding confirms the species taxonomy and highlights the current observation as a first report from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Indian Ocean. The baseline diversity of epifaunal assemblage is further reported in this study.

Comparison of epifaunal assemblages between Cymodocea nodosa and Caulerpa prolifera meadows in Gran Canaria (eastern Atlantic)

Epifaunal invertebrates are sensitive to changes in the identity of the dominant host plant, so assessing differences in the structure of epifaunal assemblages is particularly pertinent in areas where seagrasses have been replaced by alternative vegetation (e.g. green seaweeds). In this study, we aimed to compare the diversity, abundance and structure of epifaunal assemblages, particularly amphipods, between meadows dominated by the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa and the green rhizophytic algae Caulerpa prolifera on shallow soft bottoms of Gran Canaria Island, determining whether patterns were temporally consistent between two times. The epifaunal assemblage structure (abundance and composition) consistently differed between both plants, those assemblages associated with C. prolifera-dominated beds being more diverse and abundant relative to C. nodosa meadows. Amphipods constituted ~70% of total crustaceans for the overall study, including 37 species belonging to 16 families. The amphipod abundance was ~3 times larger in C. prolifera-dominated beds than in C. nodosa meadows. We detected species-specific affinities; for example, Microdeutopus stationis, Dexamine spinosa, Aora spinicornis, Ischyrocerus inexpectatus and Apherusa bispinosa were more abundant in C. prolifera-dominated beds; while the caprellid Mantacaprella macaronensis dominated in C. nodosa meadows. However, some species, such as Pseudoprotella phasma and Ampithoe ramondi, were found in both habitats with varying abundances between times.

Biodiversity of epibenthic community in the inshore waters of southeast coast of India

The epifaunal assemblage was evaluated at three different depths (5, 15 and 25 m) in the inshore waters of Pazhayar, Parangipettai and Cuddalore apart from 5 m depth near SIPCOT covering totally 10 stations (11°21′ N to 11°42′ N; 79°46′49″ E to 79°52′34″ E) in the southeast coast of India, Bay of Bengal. The occurrence of as many as 112 species belonging to 6 groups was recorded. Among these, gastropods constituted the largest component (42.85%) with 48 species. Bivalves came next with the percentage contribution of 24.10% with 27 species. Crustaceans and polychaetes contributed with 16.96% (19 species) and 6.25% (7 species), respectively. Others contributed with 9.82% (11 species). The maximum number of species was recorded in Cuddalore transect (65 species) and the minimum in SIPCOT (20 species). The maximum abundance was recorded in SIPCOT (1363 ind./haul) but the diversity was found to be lower here than in the other stations. The bivalve, Scapharca inaequivalvis was abundant only in this station whereas the large sized polychaetes, Epidiopatra hupferiana monroi and Sternaspis scutata were found only in the Pazhayar transect during all the seasons. Multivariate analyses were done to define assemblages. The total number of species estimated by various extrapolators varied from 112 species to 169.73 species. The cluster analysis revealed the gradual change in species composition with increase in depth. In the principal coordinate analysis (PCO) the first two axes explained 49.8% of the total variability in the case of biota and 98.3% of the total variability in the case of environmental variables. The distance based linear model (DISTLM) was used to find out the relationship between the abundance of epifauna and environmental variables. Depth explained about 23.7% of the variability while temperature and pH explained 17.5 and 10.6%, respectively. The best solution suggested all the nine environmental variables to combinedly explain about 92.49% of the total variability