The high biodiversity of benthic organisms in a coastal ecosystem revealed by an integrative approach / A alta biodiversidade de organismos bentônicos em um ecossistema costeiro revelada por uma abordagem integrativa

Abstract Increasing habitat modification and species loss demand consistent efforts to describe and understand biodiversity patterns. The BIOTA/FAPESP Program was created in this context and it has been a successful initiative to promote studies on biodiversity and conservation in Brazil. The BIOTA/Araçá is an interdisciplinary project that provided a detailed evaluation of the biodiversity of Araçá Bay, a coastal seascape located on the North coast of the state of São Paulo, Southeast Brazil. The bay encompasses multiple habitats, such as beaches, mangroves, rocky shores, and a tidal flat, and provides important ecosystem services. Unfortunately, the bay is the subject of complex social-environmental conflicts that oppose economic, social, and environmental demands (i.e., the expansion of neighboring harbor activities vs. small-scale artisanal fisheries and protection of biodiversity). The present study presents a survey of the benthic species occurring in the different habitats of Araçá Bay, including data obtained during the BIOTA/Araçá project and previous assessments of the area. The benthic species play an important role in marine environments and studying the diversity of these organisms that live associated with the bottom is indispensable for comprehending the environment's functioning. The macrofauna, meiofauna, and microorganisms associated with soft and hard bottom were listed, and additional information, such as the habitat and geographical distribution, were provided for each species. The checklist includes 826 species, almost 70% recorded during the BIOTA/Araçá project. The most speciose taxa were the annelids (225 spp.), mollusks (194 spp.), and crustaceans (177 spp.). Seven benthic species are endemic to Araçá Bay, 14 are considered threatened, and seven are economically exploited. Furthermore, the bay is the type locality of many taxa, and 11 new benthic species were described based on specimens sampled during the project. This project shows the importance of Araçá Bay as a unique biologically rich environment and highlights the need for conservation efforts in light of the current threats.

Resumo O aumento da modificação dos habitats e da perda de espécies demanda esforços consistentes para descrever e compreender os padrões de biodiversidade. O programa BIOTA/FAPESP foi criado nesse contexto e é uma iniciativa de sucesso para promover estudos em biodiversidade e conservação no Brasil. O BIOTA/Araçá é um projeto interdisciplinar que promoveu uma avaliação detalhada da biodiversidade da Baía do Araçá, um ecossistema costeiro localizado ao Norte do estado de São Paulo, Sudeste do Brasil. A baía engloba múltiplos habitats, tais como praias, manguezais, costões rochosos, e uma planície de maré, e também fornece importantes serviços ecossistêmicos. Infelizmente, a baía está sujeita à conflitos sócio-ambientais complexos que contrastam demandas econômicas, sociais e ambientais (i.e. a expansão das atividades do porto vizinho vs. a pesca artesanal de pequena escala e a proteção da biodiversidade). O presente estudo apresenta um levantamento das espécies bentônicas que ocorrem nos diferentes habitats da Baía do Araçá, incluindo dados obtidos durante o projeto BIOTA/Araçá e de investigações realizadas anteriormente na área. As espécies bentônicas desempenham um papel importante no ambiente marinho, e estudar a diversidade desses organismos que vivem associados ao fundo é indispensável para compreender o funcionamento do meio ambiente. A macrofauna, meiofauna, e microorganismos associados aos fundos consolidado e inconsolidado foram listados, e informações adicionais foram fornecidas para cada espécie, tais como a distribuição geográfica e nos habitats. O checklist inclui 826 espécies, quase 70% registradas durante o projeto BIOTA/Araçá. Os taxa mais especiosos foram os anelídeos (225 spp.), moluscos (194 spp.), e crustáceos (177 spp.). Entre as espécies bentônicas listadas, sete são endêmicas da Baía do Araçá, 14 são consideradas ameaçadas de extinção, e sete são exploradas economicamente. A baía é a localidade tipo de vários taxa, e 11 novas espécies bentônicas foram descritas com base em espécimes amostrados durante o projeto. Este projeto mostra a importância da Baía do Araçá como um ambiente de riqueza biológica única e demonstra a necessidade de esforços para a sua conservação considerando as atuais ameaças.

Natural history collections and the future legacy of ecological research.

Natural history collections are now being championed as key to broad ecological studies, especially those involving human impacts in the Anthropocene. However, collections are going through a crisis that threatens their present and future value, going beyond underfunding/understaffing to a more damaging practice: current researchers are no longer depositing material. This seems to be especially true for ecological studies that now benefit from historical collections, as those researchers are not trained to think about voucher specimens. We investigated indexed journals in Ecology and Zoology to assess if they have guidelines concerning voucher specimens. Only 4% of ecological journals presently encourage (but mostly do not require) voucher deposition, while 15% of zoological journals encourage it. In the first place, this goes contrary to scientific standards of reproducibility, since specimens are primary data. Secondly, this erodes the legacy we will leave for future researchers, because if this trend goes on unchecked, it will leave a massive gap in collections' coverage, undermining the quality that is presently acclaimed. The scientific community needs a wakeup call to avoid impoverishing the future value of natural history collections. Training and changing researchers' mindsets is essential, but that takes time. For the moment, we propose a stopgap measure: at the minimum, academic journals should encourage authors to deposit specimens in open collections, such as museums and universities.

A new species of the genus Rapturella (Gastropoda: Acteonidae) from southeast Brazil.

Acteonidae d'Orbigny, 1843 is the largest family within the superfamily Acteonoidea (Bouchet et al. 2017) and includes small gastropods typical of infralittoral environments. Most acteonids living on the continental shelf or in deep water have been described on the basis of shell morphology alone (Simone 2006; Valdés 2008; Cunha 2011; Salvador Cunha 2016), because little material with soft parts has been collected and examined. Consequently, little is known about the ecology of the species.  Recently, many new species of the genus Acteon Montfort, 1810 have been described from tropical Southwest Pacific waters (Valdés 2008), suggesting that a high diversity of acteonid species may await discovery in other deep water environments, including those of Brazil.

New species of the genus Elachisina (Gastropoda: Elachisinidae) from northeastern Brazil.

The family Elachisinidae Ponder, 1985 includes minute marine gastropods that live predominantly in the sublittoral zone (Ponder & Keyzer 1998; Rolán & Rubio 2001; Rolán & Gofas 2003). Most elachisinids have been included in the genus Elachisina Dall, 1918 based on their shell morphology (Warén 1996; Rolán & Rubio 2001; Rolán & Gofas 2003), consequently, very little is known about the habitat and ecological niche of the species (Ponder & Keyzer 1998; Rolán & Gofas 2003). Elachisina floridana (Rehder, 1943) is the only Atlantic congener collected alive, and is known to live beneath rocks and in rocky crevices in the intertidal zone to about 1 m depth in the Bahamas and Caribbean Sea (Ponder 1985; Ponder & Keyzer 1998; Rolán & Gofas 2003; Redfern 2013). Eastern Atlantic E. canarica (Nordsieck & García-Talavera, 1979) was also collected alive from the Canary Islands, but with no information on the habitat (Rolán & Gofas 2003). The islands of the northeastern Atlantic and West Africa are the regions with the greatest Elachisina richness known, totaling nine species (Rolán & Rubio 2001; Rolán & Gofas 2003). Only E. floridana has been recognized so far to be widely distributed throughout the Western Atlantic (Rolán & Gofas 2003; Rios 2009; Redfern 2013).

Comparative anatomy of the extraocular muscles in four Myliobatoidei rays (Batoidea, Myliobatiformes).

Extraocular muscles are classically grouped as four rectus and two oblique muscles. However, their description and potential associations with species behavior are limited. The objective was to characterize extraocular muscles in four Myliobatoidei rays from diverse habitats with divergent behaviors. Heads (10 per species) of Dasyatis hypostigma, Gymnura altavela, Mobula thurstoni and Pteroplatytrygon violacea were decalcified and dissected to characterize and describe extraocular muscles. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to evaluate relationships between muscle length and species; for P. violacea, D. hypostigma and G. altavela, these were qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with the general pattern of extraocular muscles in vertebrates. In contrast, for M. thurstoni, the two oblique muscles were completely fused and there was a seventh extraocular muscle, named m. lateral rectus ß (both were apparently novel findings in this species). There were also significant differences in eye disposition in the chondrocranium. The PCA axis 1 (rectus muscles) and PCA axis 2 (oblique muscles) accounted for 98.47% of data variability. Extraocular muscles had significant differences in length and important anatomical differences among sampled species that facilitated grouping species according to their life history. In conclusion, extraocular muscles are not uniform in all vertebrate species, thereby providing another basis for comparative studies.

Taxonomical study on the mollusks collected in Marion-Dufresne (MD55) and other expeditions to SE Brazil: the Fissurellidae (Mollusca, Vetigastropoda).

The Fissurellidae collected by the Marion-Dufresne Expedition, as well as other regional expeditions to SE Brazil are examined taxonomically, treating 21 species, of which 20 are new. The following new species are described (order according to depth range; species marked with * are from expeditions other than MD55): Cornisepta uirapa (790-940 m), Cornisepta arrepiata (295-1,050 m), Cornisepta aninga (295-1,050 m), Cranopsis hycavis (637 m), Cranopsis nymphalis (295 m), Cranopsis enigmatica (790-940 m), Cranopsis cearensis* (250 m), Cranopsis apostrema (110-940 m), Cranopsis alaris (250-450 m), Cranopsis canopa* (250 m), Cranopsis columbaris* (250 m), Emarginula suspira (54-940 m), Emarginula icosisculpta (10-12 m), Manganesepta atiaia (950-1,570 m), Profundisepta denudata* (3,000 m), Puncturella volcano (607-620 m), Rimula leptarcis (85-105 m), Zeidora pussa (607-940 m), Zeidora crepidula (790-940 m), Hemimarginula hemitoma (1-105 m). Diodora mirifica Métivier, 1972 (10-12 m), common in Brazilian oceanic islands, is the only fissurellid species previously known from that area. The genera Cornisepta, Cranopsis, Manganesepta, Profundisepta, Zeidora, and Hemimarginula are reported for the first time from Brazil. Emarginula suspira is named for material that has been misidentified as E. tuberculosa, a Miocene Mediterranean fossil.

Redescription and anatomy of Diplodonta portesiana (d'Orbigny, 1846) (Bivalvia, Ungulinidae) from Brazil.

The present redescription of Diplodonta portesiana (d'Orbigny, 1846) is the first part of the revision of this genus in the East Atlantic. This species, despite being common in the Atlantic coast, remains poorly known. A detailed shell and anatomical study was conducted based not only on specimens from the type locality's vicinities but also on samples from other regions. Diagnostic characters for Diplodonta portesiana includes: rounded shell with a small ligament; triangular, short and deep nymph; external micro ornamentation composed of small concavities in a concentric pattern; small adductor muscles; reduced pedal gape; pair of long hemipalps with a large area covered by folds; stomach with four ducts leading to digestive diverticula; and long intestine length. Our study suggests at least two new diagnostic characters to the genus: the two pair of muscles that controls the incurrent and excurrent openings and a residual ring-like tissue surrounding the anterior half of the posterior foot retractor muscle.