Abstract

CANDELARIA SILVA, Carlos F.; RODRIGUEZ VARGAS, Dení; LOPEZ GOMEZ, Norma A.  and  GONZALEZ-GONZALEZ, Jorge. Distributional pattern of macroalgae in current channel. TIP [online]. 2006, vol.9, n.2, pp.65-72. ISSN 1405-888X.

Current channels are one of the recognized intertidal rocky habitats of the Mexican tropical Pacific. A study on the distributional pattern of macroalgae was made in a current channel in Playa Las Cuatas, Guerrero, Mexico. Twenty eight species were determined: 3 Chlorophyta, 9 Phaeophyta and 16 Rhodophyta. The communitary structure is characterized by an apparent banded distribution defined by the dominant species. A pinkish belt of the crustous coralline Lithophyllum decipiens is extended from the upper subtidal to the middle intertidal. The folióse phaeophyta Sargassum liebmannii forms more or less continuous patches in the low at middle intertidal. The horizontal extension of this species is variable. Levels over L. decipiens are covered by an extense band of crustous phaeophytes. Part of the high, middle, low intertidal and up to the upper subtidal are occupied by Ralfsia hancockii. Mixed with this species in their superior limit and extending all over the supratidal is found R. confusa. Many other species are found with a variable distribution intermingling in different bands. This pattern of species distribution is analyzed in the light of several zonation proposals.

Keywords : Seaweeds communities; ecological distribution; intertidal ecology; ecological distribution; zonational pattern.