ABSTRACT
The following study aims at assessing the ophidian diversity of the Lama Forest, a classified area, situated in the South of Benin. One can distinguish three types of habitat according to the degree of human activity: the remaining dense forest at the centre, the intermediate plantation area, and finally the area around the edge which has been entirely subjected to human habitation. Each day for two weeks we have been working on various plots of study (by day), patrolled along transect routes (by night), and installed a trap in the central area. As a result, we were able to observe 32 snake specimens, 24 of which we captured. Nearly all were able to be identified, and have been classified into 13 genera and 17 species.
Subject(s)
Biodiversity , Snakes , Animals , Benin , Ecosystem , Geography , Humans , Pilot Projects , Population Density , Snakes/physiology , TreesABSTRACT
Like other reef-building corals, members of the genus Acropora form obligate endosymbioses with dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae) belonging to the genus Symbiodinium. Both Symbiodinium and its hosts are diverse assemblages, and the relationships between host and algal genotypes are unclear. In this study, we determined phylogenetic relationships between Symbiodinium isolates from a wide range of Acropora species and plotted the algal genotypes onto a molecular phylogeny of 28 Acropora species, using the same samples for the host and symbiont genotyping. In addition, we performed a preliminary survey of zooxanthella distribution in Acropora species from the central Great Barrier Reef. Three of the four known major zooxanthellae clades were represented in the 168 samples examined, and within the major clade C, three distinct subclades were identified. No evidence was found for coevolution, but several clear patterns of specificity were identified. Moreover, composition of the zooxanthella pool varied among locales and in one host species we found light-related patterns of zooxanthella distribution.
