| Abstract Detail
MSA - Systematics/Evolution Velez, Patricia [1], Gonzalez, Maria C [1]. Abundance evaluation of arenicolous marine ascomycetes from some beaches in Cozumel Island, Mexico. Arenicolous marine microfungi are an ecological rather than a taxonomic group that lives in or between sand grains in sandy beaches, but they do not obtain their nutriments from them. Marine fungi are major decomposers of organic substrates in marine ecosystems and are in charge of recycling bioelements. Fungi diversity is poorly studied globally, it is estimated that referring to the 80,060 species described, only 500 correspond to the marine habitat, even though, such environment have an enormous amount of biodiversity. In this survey the abundance of marine arenicolous ascomycetes was evaluated on five sandy beaches located in the Island of Cozumel, State of Quintana Roo, Mexico (Mezcalito, Punta Morena, Chen Rio, Chiquero and San Francisco of Cozumel). Fifty samples were taken on each of the studied beaches and were deposited into hermetic polyetilene bags. Finally the samples were incubated in the laboratory up to a period of six months and were examined for the incidence of ascomata. Seven ascomyces were recorded from which three of them represent new records for Cozumel: Arenariomyces parvulus, A. triseptatus, Corollospora maritima, C. gracilis, Corollospora sp., Lulworthia grandispora and Lindra thalassiae. This last mentioned ascomycete showed the highest abundance percentage (59.1). This may be due to the presence of numerous leaves of seagrass Thalassia testudinium which represent the main substrate that this fungus decomposes. The beach that had the highest abundance value was San Francisco and the lowest one on Chiquero, this result agrees with the touristic impact observed.
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1 - Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Botanica, Apartado Postal 70-233, Mexico, DF, 04510, Mexico
Keywords:
marine
ascomycetes
arenicolous.
Presentation Type: Poster:Posters for Topics
Session: P2
Location: Event Tent/Cliff Lodge
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: P2SE002
Abstract ID:19 |
