Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:57:39.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A preliminary list of ascidians for the island of Trinidad, West Indies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2013

Alana H.C. Jute*
Affiliation:
Flat 24, 41 Park Road, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand 1023
Judith F. Gobin
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies
Rosana Moreira Rocha
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Paraná, Zoology Department, CP 19020, 81.531-980, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: A.H.C. Jute, Flat 24, 41 Park Road, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand 1023 email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The twin-island state of Trinidad and Tobago has a thriving yachting industry with numbers of leisure craft having increased 10-fold from 1980 to 2000. Being geographically outside of the hurricane belt, the islands offer a prime hurricane Caribbean shelter with excellent boating and repair facilities. The Chaguaramas coastline (on the north-west peninsula) has seven (7) anchorages. One of these (the Chaguaramas Bay) was the study site for a survey of hull foulers on recreational boats. In that survey, twenty-seven (27) recreational vessels were sampled for biofoulers, one group being the Tunicates (Ascidiacea). In Trinidad and Tobago little is known about these organisms. Of the eighteen species (18) collected, eight (8) were solitary species and ten (10) were colonial species. Their distribution (all species collected) is wide and they can be found throughout the western Atlantic, the eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. This survey is a preliminary one in terms of the ascidian fauna of Trinidad and represents only one (1) sampled habitat (boat hulls). There has however been a previous survey of the Tobago fauna. For completeness, there should be a full survey of the ascidians along Trinidad's coastline including their various habitats (rocky shores, mangroves, seagrass beds, etc.). These new data could be used to determine those species which occur in natural communities in Trinidad as compared with this survey (fouling community). In this paper these preliminary results are however used for comparison with the Tobago fauna.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bonnet, N.Y.K. and Rocha, R.M. (2011) The family Ascidiidae Herdman (Tunicata: Ascidiacea) in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Description of six new species. Zootaxa 2864, 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carballo, J.L. and Naranjo, S. (2002) Environmental assessment of a large industrial marine complex based on a community of benthic filter-feeders. Marine Pollution Bulletin 44, 605610.Google Scholar
Cole, L.L. (2012) Diversity and distribution of Tunicata (Urochordata) in Tobago. Journal of Life Sciences 6, 221232.Google Scholar
Coles, S.L., DeFelice, R.C., Eldredge, L.G. and Carlton, J.T. (1999) Historical and recent introductions of non-indigenous marine species into Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. Marine Biology 135, 147158.Google Scholar
Lambert, C.C. and Lambert, G. (2003) Persistence and differential distribution of nonindigenous ascidians in harbors of the Southern California Bight. Marine Ecology Progress Series 259, 145161.Google Scholar
Lambert, G. (2002) Nonindigenous ascidians in tropical waters. Pacific Science 56, 291298.Google Scholar
Lambert, G. (2007) Invasive sea squirts: a growing global problem. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 342, 34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millar, R.H. (1962) Some ascidians from the Caribbean. Studies on the Fauna of Curaçao and other Caribbean Islands 59, 6177.Google Scholar
Monniot, C. (2002) Stolidobranch ascidians from the tropical western Indian Ocean. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 135, 65120.Google Scholar
Monniot, C. and Monniot, F. (1972) Clé mondiale des genres d'Ascidies. Archives de Zoologie Expérimentale Générale 113, 311367.Google Scholar
Monniot, C. and Monniot, F. (1994) Additions to the inventory of eastern tropical Atlantic ascidians; arrival of cosmopolitan species. Bulletin of Marine Science 54, 7193.Google Scholar
Monniot, C., Monniot, F. and Laboute, P. (1985) Ascidies du port de Papeete (Polynésie Française): relations avec le milieu naturel et apports intercontinentaux par la navigation. Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle 4e serie 7, 481495.Google Scholar
Monniot, C., Monniot, F. and Laboute, P. (1991) Coral reef ascidians of New Caledonia. Paris: ORSTOM.Google Scholar
Philip, R.B., Leung, F.Y. and Bradley, C. (2003) A comparison of the metal content of some benthic species from coastal waters of the Florida Panhandle using high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 44, 218223.Google Scholar
Rocha, R.M., Dias, G.M. and Lotufo, T.M.C. (2011) Checklist das ascídias (Tunicata, Ascidiacea) do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Biota Neotropica 11, 000–000. http://www.biotaneotropica.org.br/v11n1a/en/abstract?inventory+bn0391101a2011 Google Scholar
Rocha, R.M., Faria, S.B. and Moreno, T.R. (2005) Ascidians from Bocas del Toro, Panamá. I. Biodiversity. Caribbean Journal of Science 41, 600612.Google Scholar
Rocha, R.M., Guerra-Castro, E., Lira, C., Pauls, S.M., Hernandez, I., Pérez, A., Sardi, A., Perez, J., Herrera, C., Carbonini, A.K., Caraballo, V., Salazar, D., Díaz, M.C. and Cruz-Motta, J.J. (2010) Inventory of ascidians (Tunicata, Ascidiacea) from the National Park La Restinga, Isla Margarita, Venezuela. Biota Neotropica 10, 209218. http://www.biotaneotropica.org.br/v10n1/en/abstract?inventory+bn00510012010 Google Scholar
Rocha, R.M., Zanata, T.B. and Moreno, T.R. (2012a) Keys for the identification of families and genera of Atlantic shallow water ascidians. Biota Neotropica 12, 269303. http://www.biotaneotropica.org.br/v12n1/en/abstract?identification-key+bn01712012012 Google Scholar
Rocha, R.M., Kremer, L.P. and Fehlauer-Ale, K.H. (2012b) Lack of COI variation for Clavelina oblonga (Tunicata, Ascidiacea) in Brazil: evidence for its human-mediated transportation? Aquatic Invasions 7, 419424.Google Scholar