Ascidians at Currais islands, Paraná, Brazil: taxonomy and distribution

Resumen

The Currais Islands is a group of a few small rocky islands in the state of Paraná, in southern Brazil, which provides an interesting location for the study of ascidians. Subtidal diversity is very high and the islands have recently been proposed as a Conservation Unit. A field study was established on the largest island to understand ascidian distributions on spatial and temporal scales. Transects, sampled three times during 2002 and 2003, were established on northern and southern locations of the island as well as at three depths. Twenty species were recorded; the most common were Didemnum rodriguesi, Didemnum speciosum and Didemnum granulatum. Three species are possibly new and will be described elsewhere. An additional nine are new records for the state of Paraná: Perophora regina, Didemnum speciosum, Trididemnum orbiculatum, Eudistoma carolinense, Aplidium pentatrema, Molgula phytophila, Botryllus tuberatus, Symplegma brakenhielmi and Polyandrocarpa anguinea. While all these species are distributed between 6 and 15 m, there is a tendency to reduction of abundance towards 15 m in several species. Some species appear to prefer the north side of the island. Several species show temporal changes in abundance, with some being most common in the spring and others in the summer, but we can not affirm yet that there is a seasonal pattern between years.