Services on Demand
Journal
Article
Indicators
- Cited by SciELO
- Access statistics
Related links
- Similars in SciELO
Share
Revista mexicana de biodiversidad
On-line version ISSN 2007-8706Print version ISSN 1870-3453
Abstract
RUIZ, Talina; VAZQUEZ-BADER, Ana Rosa and GRACIA, Adolfo. Epibenthic megacrustacean assemblages in the Campeche Sound, Gulf of Mexico. Rev. Mex. Biodiv. [online]. 2013, vol.84, n.1, pp.280-290. ISSN 2007-8706. https://doi.org/10.7550/rmb.27685.
Megacrustacean epibenthic assemblages of the continental shelf of Campeche Sound were analyzed using multivariate analysis. Seven cruises were done during 1994 (May, August, November) and 1995 (February, May, August and November). Benthic samples were obtained with a semicommercial trawl net (18.3 meters of mouth aperture and 2.5 cm mesh size) in a depth range of 14 to 215 m. A total of 11,113 megacrustaceans belonging to 55 species and 24 families was recorded. Total biomass weighted 173.28 kg. Leucosiidae, Penaeidae and Portunidae families were the most abundant in species number and represented 27% of total species. Diversity, dominance and equitability indexes did not show marked variations either in climatic periods or between years. Depth and sediment type were the first and second environmental factors that mainly explained megacrustacean biomass and density variations. Shallow megacrustaceans assemblages were more numerous and differed clearly from the deep one. This can be attributed to substrate heterogeneity of shallow areas that have a transition zone between lime-clay and carbonate sediments.
Keywords : crustacean communities; soft sediment; multivariate analysis; continental shelf.