Abstract

PRADO-NAVARRO, Andrea; DIAZ-CASTANEDA, Victoria; LEIJA-TRISTAN, Antonio  and  LEON-GONZALEZ, Jesús Angel de. Composition and structure of polychaete communities (Annelida) associated with soft bottom of the West Coast of Baja California Peninsula, Mexico. Rev. Mex. Biodiv. [online]. 2016, vol.87, n.1, pp.74-85. ISSN 2007-8706.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmb.2016.01.015.

Polychaetes are one of the most important groups of the benthos from any point of view. The present study aims to characterize the species richness of polychaete fauna of the West Coast of Baja California, from the mouth of Magdalena Bay to Punta Colonet. Collections were made by the Oceanographic Cruise SIMSUP VIII. We compared the number of families and species collected both bathymetricaly and latitudinally, we also performed a diversity analysis using several indexes such as alpha diversity, Pielou evenness, Simpson dominance and specific dominance. A total of 60 stations were revised, 30 of these were positive, finding 3,709 specimens grouped in 11 orders, 27 families, 62 genera and 99 species. Spionidae has the highest richness with 4 genera and 12 species (12.2% of global diversity and 42.7% of the relative abundance) for a total of 1,583 specimens. Paraprionospio pinnata was the most abundant, frequent and dominant species (24.2% of all specimens). Of the total sample, 53.8% belong to the central zone, 26.9% to the southern one and 19.2% to the northern one. The highest richness (85.9%) and abundance (62.8%) correspond to the central zone.

Keywords : Polychaetes; Diversity; Mexican Pacific.

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