Effects of environmental factors on distribution of sea cucumbers in subtidal region of Chabahar Bay

Considering the importance of environmental factors on marine organisms, a survey of factors that affect the subtidal sea cucumber community was carried out in the eastern part of Chabahar Bay, a region with anthropogenic effects on marine ecosystem, from May 2007 to July 2008. Four quadrates with 100m2 area were sampled with SCUBA diving method in each region. Temperature had significant variation among the stations and seasons. There is a positive correlation (99%) between salinity and sea cucumber density and a negative correlation (95%) between turbidity and density. PCA indicated that salinity, pH, turbidity and temperature had 82.78% of all variance of the environmental factors and other factors did not exhibit such a relation with sea cucumber dispersion. Northern stations (Sepah and Kalantary) were located in same category in Fall 2007 and Winter 2008. These stations had the least pH and the highest salinity and turbidity in Fall and the highest pH and the least turbidity in Winter. Southern stations (Beheshti and Hotel Daryai) located in the same category in summer and fall 2007. These stations had the most pH and the least salinity in the summer and the most temperature and turbidity in the fall

New observation of three species of sea cucumbers from Chabahar Bay (Southeast Coasts of Iran)

Three species of sea cucumber (2 species belong to genus Holothuria and one species of Stichopus) were collected on subtidal zone of Chabahar Bay in the late of 2007. The literature review on the distribution was revealed that this is the first report of H. leucospilota, H. arenicula and S. variegatus from Chabahar Bay (Sea of Oman). The species identification was done through morphological keys and review of their ossicles. This study is revealed the special characteristics of the presented species in order to just identification of them