Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T14:27:22.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New records of brittle stars from French Guiana: Ophiactis savignyi and the alien species Ophiothela mirabilis (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2013

Gordon Hendler  and
Sophie J. Brugneaux
Gordon Hendler*
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90007, USA
Sophie J. Brugneaux
Affiliation:
Agence des aires marines protégées, quai de la Douane, BP 42932, 29229 Brest Cedex 2, France
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: G. Hendler, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90007, USA email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The brittle stars Ophiactis savignyi and Ophiothela mirabilis are documented for the first time from French Guiana. The latter species was associated with colonies of a gorgonian, Leptogorgia miniata, growing on a rocky reef beneath a brackish layer of water and above an unstable mud bottom. Ophiothela mirabilis is a recently established alien introduction to the Atlantic. Ophiothela discovered in French Guiana were located approximately midway between populations of O. mirabilis in Brazil and at St Vincent, and individuals from all three countries may represent a single lineage of ophiuroids. Evidence is presented that O. savignyi and O. mirabilis could have been transported to the Amazon Barrier region by shipping and/or by coastal currents linking Brazil, French Guiana and St Vincent. If oceanic circulation is responsible for its dispersal, it is predicted that O. mirabilis will spread from the Windward Islands toward the southern Caribbean coast, whereas dispersal by shipping could follow a more northerly route.

Keywords

alien speciesAmazon Barrierasexual reproductionfissiparityinvasive specieslarval dispersalLeptogorgiaNorth Brazil Currentraftingsymbiosis
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 6 , 2013 , e113
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

Agence des aires marines protégées (2009) Analyse Stratégique Régionale Guyane: synthèse des connaissances. Available online at: http://www.aires-marines.fr/Documentation/ASR-Guyane (accessed 3 April 2013).Google Scholar
Allison, M.A., Lee, M.T., Ogston, A.S. and Aller, R.C. (2000) Origin of Amazon mudbanks along the northeastern coast of South America. Marine Geology 163, 241–256.Google Scholar
Andrade, C.A., Barton, E.D. and Mooers, C.N.K. (2003) Evidence for an eastward flow along the Central and South American Caribbean coast. Journal of Geophysical Research 108, 16-1–16-11. doi: 10.1029/2002JC001549.Google Scholar
Artigas, L.F., Vendeville, P., Leopold, M., Guiral, D. and Ternon, J.-F. (2003) Marine biodiversity in French Guiana: estuarine, coastal and shelf ecosystems under the influence of the Amazonian waters. Gayana 67, 302–326.Google Scholar
Briggs, J.C. (1974) Marine zoogeography. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Briggs, J.C. (1995) Global biogeography. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Cherbonnier, G. (1959) Echinodermes de la Guyane Française (Crinoides, Astérides, Ophiurides, Echinides, Holothurides). Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 2e série, 31, 261–265.Google Scholar
Chérubin, L.M. and Richardson, P.L. (2007) Caribbean current variability and the influence of the Amazon and Orinoco freshwater plumes. Deep-Sea Research Part I 54, 1451–1473.Google Scholar
Clark, A.M. (1976) Tropical epizoic echinoderms and their distribution. Micronesica 12, 111–117.Google Scholar
Clark, H.L. (1919) The distribution of the littoral echinoderms of the West Indies. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 281, 49–74 + pls 1–3.Google Scholar
Clark, H.L. (1946) The echinoderm fauna of Australia: its composition and its origins. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication 566, iv + 567.Google Scholar
Collette, B.B. and Rützler, K. (1977) Reef fishes over sponge bottoms off the mouth of the Amazon River. In Taylor, D.L. (ed.) Proceedings of the Third International Coral Reef Symposium, Miami. Volume 1 (Biology). University of Miami, pp. 305–310.Google Scholar
DeFelice, R.C. (1999) Fouling marine invertebrates on the floating dry dock USS Machinist in Pearl Harbor prior to its move to Apra Harbor, Guam. Final Report to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Islands Ecoregion, Honolulu, Hawai'i. Bishop Museum Hawai'i Biological Survey Contribution 1999-013, 16 pp.Google Scholar
Durand, J. (1959) Notes sur le plateau continental Guyanais. Les éléments principaux de la faune et leurs relations avec le fond. Cahiers de l'ORSTOM 3, 1–104.Google Scholar
Foulquié, M. (2012) Prestations d'inventaire et d’étude de zones rocheuses côtières du secteur d'Oyapock à l’îlet La Mère en Guyane: étude des communautés de substrats durs. Rapport d’études. SEANEO, SEMANTIC, Agence des aires marines protégées, 165 pp.Google Scholar
Godwin, L.S., Eldredge, L.G. and Gaut, K. (2004) The assessment of hull fouling as a mechanism for the introduction and dispersal of marine alien species in the main Hawaiian islands. Bishop Museum Technical Report No. 28, 114 pp.Google Scholar
Hendler, G. (1991) Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea. In Giese, A.C., Pearse, J.S. and Pearse, V.B. (eds) Reproduction of Marine Invertebrates,Volume VI, Echinoderms and Lophophorates. Pacific Grove, CA: Boxwood Press, pp. 355–511.Google Scholar
Hendler, G., Baldwin, C.C., Smith, D.G. and Thacker, C.E. (1999) Planktonic dispersal of juvenile brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) on a Caribbean reef. Bulletin of Marine Science 65, 283–288.Google Scholar
Hendler, G., Migotto, A.E., Ventura, C.R.R. and Wilk, L. (2012) Epizoic Ophiothela brittle stars have invaded the Atlantic. Coral Reefs 31, 1005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendler, G., Miller, J.E., Pawson, D.L. and Kier, P.M. (1995) Sea stars, sea urchins, and allies: echinoderms of Florida and the Caribbean. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Johns, W.E., Townsend, T.L., Fratantoni, D.M. and Wilson, W.D. (2002) On the Atlantic inflow to the Caribbean Sea. Deep-Sea Research Part I 49, 211–243.Google Scholar
Le Loeuff, P. and von Cosel, R. (2000) Aperçus sur la macrofaune benthique du plateau continental de la Guyane française (résultats de la champagne GREEN 0, 16 au 20 avril 1999). Document Scientifique et Technique du Centre IRD de Bretagne, No. 86, 39 pp.Google Scholar
Lessios, H.A., Kane, J. and Robertson, D.R. (2003) Phylogeography of the pantropical sea urchin Tripneustes: contrasting patterns of population structure between oceans. Evolution 57, 2026–2036.Google Scholar
Lumpkin, R. and Garzoli, S.L. (2005) Near-surface circulation in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean. Deep-Sea Research Part I 52, 495–518.Google Scholar
Milne Edwards, H. and Haime, J. (1857) Histoire naturelle des coralliaires ou polypes proprement dits, Tome Premier. Paris: Roret.Google Scholar
Müller, J.H. and Troschel, F.H. (1842) System der Asteriden. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg.Google Scholar
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (2012) Sailing directions (en route) east coast of South America. 12th edition. Springfield, VA: United States Government.Google Scholar
Paulay, G., Kirkendale, L., Lambert, G. and Meyer, C. (2002) Anthropogenic biotic interchange in a coral reef ecosystem: a case study from Guam. Pacific Science 56, 403–422.Google Scholar
Richardson, P.L. (2005) Caribbean Current and eddies observed by surface drifters. Deep-Sea Research Part II 52, 429–463.Google Scholar
Rocha, L.A. (2003) Patterns of distribution and processes of speciation in Brazilian reef fishes. Journal of Biogeography 30, 1161–1171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rocha, L.A., Rosa, I.L. and Feitoza, B.M. (2000) Sponge-dwelling fishes of northeastern Brazil. Environmental Biology of Fishes 59, 453–458.Google Scholar
Roy, M.S. and Sponer, R. (2002) Evidence of a human-mediated invasion of the Tropical Western Atlantic by the ‘world's most common brittlestar’. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 269, 1017–1023.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rudorff, C.A.G., Lorenzzetti, J.A., Gherardi, D.F.M. and Lins-Oliveira, J.E. (2009) Modeling spiny lobster larval dispersion in the Tropical Atlantic. Fisheries Research 96, 206–215.Google Scholar
Verrill, A.E. (1867) Notes on Radiata in the Museum of Yale College with descriptions of new genera and species. No. 2. Notes on the echinoderms of Panama and the West Coast of America, with descriptions of new genera and species. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 1, 247–322.Google Scholar