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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.34, 1-9
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
1
Research Article Open Access
Study of the Macro Faunal Associates of the Littoral Zoanthid
Palythoa
mutuki
(Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from Saurashtra Coast, Gujarat, India
Trivedi J. N., Arya S., Vachhrajani K. D.
Marine Biodiversity and Ecology Lab, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, M. S. University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, India
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2014, Vol.4, No.35 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0035
Received: 21 Mar., 2014
Accepted: 26 Apr., 2014
Published: 15 Jun., 2014
Copyright
©
2014 Trivedi et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Trivedi et al., 2014, Study of the Macro Faunal Associates of the Littoral Zoanthid
Palythoa mutuki
(Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from Saurashtra Coast, Gujarat, India,
International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.4, No.34 1
-
9 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0034)
Abstract
The macrobenthic community associated with the encrusting zoanthid
Palythoa mutuki
was studied in the littoral zone of
four different sites situated along the coasts of Saurashtra (Gujarat, India). A total of 20 random quadrates (0.25 m
2
) were laid in the
lower littoral zone where
Palythoa mutuki
was abundant. All the animals present in the quadrate area were collected or photographed
and brought to the lab for species identification. A total of 67 different species belonging to 6 phyla were identified. The most
abundant taxa were Arthropoda (44.8%), Mollusca (38.7%), Cnidaria (4.5%), Annelida (4.5%), Porifera (4.5%) and Echinodermata
(3%). The maximum diversity of associates amongst the studied sites varied between 31 and 53 species, with the highest value
recorded at Sutrapada followed by Dhamlej, Kodinar and Veraval. The diversity and species composition of associated community
with
P. mutuki
, tested with MDS, PCA and Bray Curtis Similarity, is significantly homogeneous in all sites, with the exception of
Veraval probably as a consequence of the habitat heterogeneity.
Keywords
Palythoa mutuki
; Benthic community, Brachyuran crabs, Gastropods, Saurashtra coast, India
Introduction
One of the major biological forces for the
establishment of benthic associations is the
competition for space, a factor that has been often
considered to make predictions about the benthic
community structure (Dayton, 1971). Associations of
commensal, mutualistic and parasitic cnidarians are
among the most important and widespread in the
marine ecosystems and include hydroids (Genzano,
1998), gorgonians (Goh-Nigel, 1999), pennatulaceans,
corallimorpharians, scleractinians, and zoanthids and
sessile sponges (Suchanek and Green, 1981) etc.
Although common in the marine environment,
zoanthids are poorly studied from the taxonomic point
of view (Reimer et al., 2006). So far, a total of 354
species of zoanthids have been reported worldwide.
They are generally dominant in the intertidal
communities of the rocky shores and reefs where
corals are not found extensively (Cooke, 1976; Sebens,
1977). Zoanthids, together with corallimorpharians
and stolonifera, are characterized by sessile colonial
forms that are connected by a basal reticulum (Reimer
et al., 2006). Several species of the genera
Epizoanthus
and
Parazoanthus
are known to establish numerous
symbiotic relationships (West, 1979; Crocker and
Reiswig, 1981), primarily with crustaceans, mollusks
and polychaetes (Wirtz et al., 2009; Martinez et al.,
2012).
The coastal areas of Saurashtra are very rich in marine
biodiversity and about 180 macrobenthic species have
been reported so far (Vaghela, 2010; Trivedi and
Vachhrajani, 2012a, b; Trivedi and Vachhrajani, 2013a,
b). The zoanthid fauna of the Saurashtra coast has not
been studied well and, so far, the identification was
carried up to generic level only (Hornell, 1916). In
previous studies, two species of the genus
Palythoa
have been identified from the Saurashtra coast,
Palythoa tuberculosa
(Esper, 1791) and
Palythoa
mutuki
(Haddon and Shackeleton, 1891) (Bhattji et al.,
2010; Pandya and Mankodi, 2013).
P. mutuki
is a
colonial zoanthid that inhabits the rocky intertidal
areas (Figure 1a) and dense patches of this species
have been observed in the lower intertidal region
(Trivedi and Vachhrajani, 2014). The aim of the
present study was to describe and compare the species
composition and the impact of characteristics of rocky