Anthopleura radians, una nueva especie de anémona de mar (Cnidaria: Actiniaria: Actiniidae) del norte de Chile, con comentarios sobre las otras especies del género del Océano Pacifico Sur

A new species of sea anemone, Anthopleura radians n. sp., is described from the intertidal zone of northern Chile and the taxonomic status of the other Anthopleura species from the South Pacific are discussed. A. radians n. sp. is characterized by a yellow-whitish and brown checkerboard-like pattern on the oral disc, adhesive verrucae along the entire column and a series of marginal projections, each bearing a brightly-colored acrorhagus on the oral surface. This is the seventh species of Anthopleura described from the South Pacific Ocean; each one distinguished by a particular combination of differences related to their coloration pattern, presence of zooxanthellae, cnidae, and mode of reproduction. Some of these species have not been reported since their original description and thus require to be taxonomically validated. A. hermaphroditica and A. aureoradiata are synonyms considering the lack of differences seen between live specimens, museum collections and published records. A. radians could also be a junior synonym of A. minima, however, no type material was found for testing this hypothesis. Furthermore, it is crucial to designate neotypes for A. inconspicua, A. rosea and A. minima since there are no name-bearing types reported for these species.Una nueva especie de anémona de mar, Anthopleura radians n. sp., es descrita para la zona intermareal del norte de Chile y el estatus taxonómico de las otras especies de Anthopleura del Pacifico Sur es discutido. A. radians n. sp. se caracteriza por el patrón de coloración amarillo-blanquecino y café tipo tablero de ajedrez del disco oral, las verrugas adhesivas a lo largo de toda la columna y una serie de proyecciones marginales, cada una provista de un notorio acroragio en la superficie oral. Esta es la séptima especie de Anthopleura descrita para el Océano Pacifico Austral; cada una se distingue a través de una combinación particular de diferencias relacionadas al patrón de coloración, presencia de zooxantelas, cnidocistos y modo de reproducción. Varias de estas especies no han vuelto a ser reportadas desde su descripción original y, por lo tanto, requieren ser taxonómicamente validadas. A. hermaphroditica y A. aureoradiata son sinónimos considerando la falta de diferencias observadas entre especímenes vivos, colecciones de museo y registros publicados. A. radians podría ser también un sinónimo moderno de A. minima, no obstante, no se encontró material tipo de esta especie para poner a prueba dicha hipótesis. Más aun, es crucial designar neotipos para A. inconspicua, A. rosea y A. minima dado que no hay tipos portanombres reportados para estas especies

Transplantacion experimental del coral de aquas frias Tethocyathus endesa a traves de un gradiente natural de pH

Tethocyathus endesa es un coral escleractinio solitario recientemente descubierto [1] que se encuentra en la región de los fiordos chilenos. Este estudio busca una mejor comprensión de la reacción de estos corales de aguas frías a un medio cambiante. El calentamiento de los océanos trae consigo una acidificación de sus aguas y esto puede generar un gran impacto en todos los organismos compuestos por calcio, como lo son los corales. Las condiciones habituales de los sitios muestreados permiten una trasplantación experimental a través de un gradiente de pH natural, determinando así la influencia de un sistema cambiante de carbonatos en el crecimiento y respiración de T. endesa. El crecimiento in situ a largo plazo (12 meses) y las tasas de respiración in vitro fueron medidas para investigar las siguientes hipótesis. H1: Las diferencias de pH naturales presentes influencian las tasa de crecimiento in situ a largo plazo de T. endesa H2: Las diferencias de pH naturales presentes influencian la tasa de respiración de T. endes

A trophic link between the cold-water coral Desmophyllum dianthus and filter-feeding bivalves?

Cold-water corals play an important role as ecosystem engineers by providing the three-dimensional structural basis and habitat for a rich associated fauna. In southern Chile, the cold-water scleractinian Desmophyllum dianthus populates the steep walls of Comau Fjord. Where its principal energy source, the zooplankton, is less abundant in winter. This coral specie is often associated with filter-feeders, but the nature and possible trophic significance of this relationship remains enigmatic. Dense belts of the mussel Aulacomya atra and the brachiopod Magellania venosa thrive in the productive waters above and between D. dianthus, and both, visual observation and diver-operated push net samples revealed a rain of biodeposits (faeces and pseudofaeces) from these filter-feeders to the corals. This study aims to determine if the conversion by filter-feeders of microscopic plankton inaccessible to corals to macroscopic strings of faeces and pseudofaeces accessible to the corals’ tentacles may represent a new and so far overlooked trophic link channeling surface production to the corals. Preliminary in vitro experiments show that D. dianthus ingests biodeposits of the mussel Mytilus edulis, but only after the consumption of juvenile krill (Euphausia pacifica). This indicates that biodeposits of active filter feeders may play a role as a food supplement for corals. Follow-up experiments with biodeposits produced under natural conditions by the native filter-feeder community are expected to compound the evidence

Checklist of cnidarians from Pakistani waters

We present a species list of the marine cnidarians recorded from the Pakistani waters,  north­ern Arabian Sea. It comprises a total of  119 species distributed in  41 families, 14 orders and 4 classes. With 44 species, the order Scleractinia (class Anthozoa) is the best-represented cnidarian taxon. Cnidarians from Pakistan are a poorly studied group which is mentioned in few occasional papers; no new species have been described from the region. The present paper will provide baseline information for future studies in Pakistan

Early life history of the cold-water coral Caryophyllia huinayensis from the Chilean Fjord Region

Cold-water corals (CWC) build complex, three-dimensional habitats for diverse communities of associated species. In spite of their importance, very little is known on their reproductive biology. In the Patagonian fjords of Chile, three caryophylliid CWC abound: Desmophyllum dianthus Es-per 1794 along with the recently described Caryophyllia huinayensis Cairns et al. 2005 and Tethocyathus endesa Cairns et al. 2005. This study reports first in situ and in vitro observations of the early life history of the latter two species along with in vitro growth data of juvenile C. huina-yensis. Both are brooding species with translucent tissues, which allowed us to detect and monitor larval development in the gastrovascular system of living specimens. In situ observations from summer 2017 showed between 15 and 25 milky white reproductive stages in the tentacle portion of the gastrovascular cavity of one adult specimen. Up to five younger, round stages were ob-served in groups in the tips of the tentacles. Small planulae of 1.13-1.28 mm length were observed in the tips of the tentacles or organized radially around the mouth. Observations from C. huina-yensis maintained (> 1 yr) in an aquarium system showed that the 620 µm large orange planulae may swim with a velocity of 230 µm s-1 and thus may move from the tentacle tip to the mouth within less than a minute and thereafter reappear in the same or another tentacle in the similar time. After release larvae were found to be negatively buoyant, crawl along the substrate and settle between four and 16 days. Recently settled juveniles increased their basal disc diameter with a rate of 10 µm d-1. After 30 months of maintenance in the aquarium system (Temperature: 12.5 °C, Salinity 32, pH 8, argonite >1, feed with Artemia salina nauplii twice a week) recruits may gain 4.22 (+/-) 0.03 mm yr-1 in diameter and reach the mean size observed for adults in the field after three years. Research on the early life history of CWC is important to understand larval dispersal and connectivity of populations threatened by a changing climate and increasing eutrophication by expanding salmon farming operations

Global-scale genetic structure of a cosmopolitan cold-water coral species

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Addamo, A. M., Miller, K. J., Haussermann, V., Taviani, M., & Machordom, A. Global-scale genetic structure of a cosmopolitan cold-water coral species. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, (2020): 1-14, doi:10.1002/aqc.3421.1. When considering widely distributed marine organisms with low dispersal capabilities, there is often an implication that the distribution of cosmopolitan species is an artefact of taxonomy, constrained by the absence of characters for delimiting either sibling or cryptic species. Few studies have assessed the relationship among populations across the global range of the species' distribution, and the presence of oceanographic barriers that might influence gene flow among populations are underestimated. 2. In this study, evolutionary and ecological drivers of connectivity patterns have been inferred among populations of the cold‐water coral Desmophyllum dianthus, a common and widespread solitary scleractinian species, whose reproduction strategy and larval dispersal are still poorly unknown. 3. The genetic structure of D. dianthus was explored using 30 microsatellites in 347 specimens from 13 localities distributed in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 4. Results clearly reveal genetically differentiated populations in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (FST = 0.16, FSC = 0.01, FCT = 0.15, P‐values highly significant), and Chilean and New Zealand populations with independent genetic profiles. 5. Marine connectivity patterns at different spatial scales are discussed to characterize larval dispersal and gene flow through the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CGL2011‐23306), and EU CoCoNET—“Towards COast to COast NETworks of marine protected areas (from the shore to the high and deep sea), coupled with sea‐based wind energy potential”—from FP7‐KKBE of the European Commission (project ID: 287844). This scientific contribution commits to EESF Cocarde, Italian Flag Ritmare, and Region Apulia Biomap programmes. This is scientific publication no. 1888 Ismar‐CNR Bologna. Funding to VH was partially provided through Fondecyt project nos. 1131039 and 1161699. This is publication no. 179 of Huinay Scientific Field Station

Gastrointestinal Parasites and Bacteria in Free-Living South American Sea Lions (Otaria flavescens) in Chilean Comau Fjord and New Host Record of a Diphyllobothrium scoticum-Like Cestode

Present study aimed to characterize gastrointestinal parasites and culturable bacteria from free-living South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) inhabiting waters of Comau Fjord, Patagonia, Chile. Therefore, a total of 28 individual fecal samples were collected from sea lions within their natural marine habitat during several diving expeditions. Using classical parasitological techniques, study revealed infections with five different gastrointestinal parasite genera. In addition, bacterial cultures showed presence of at least 28 different bacterial genera. Referring to parasites, protozoan, and metazoan species were found with some of them bearing anthropozoonotic potential and/or pathogenic impact for these marine mammals. As such, four of identified parasite genera harbored zoonotic potential (i.e., Entamoeba, Balantidium, Diphyllobothrium, Anisakis) and one genus (Parafilaroides) represented a specific lungworm of marine pinnipeds. Proglottids from fecal samples showed high morphological homology to “Diphyllobothrium” scoticum (Rennie and Reid, 1912; Meggitt, 1924), which was found in Antarctic sea leopards (Hydrurga leptonyx; Phocidae), but contained eggs of smaller size. Molecular characterization revealed 97–100% identity to a new “Diphyllobothrium” species which was recently isolated from a Californian sea lion (Zalophus californianus; Otariidae) in San Francisco. As such, O. flavescens represents a new host record for this parasite species. Furthermore, potential zoonotic bacteria (i.e., Clostridium, Escherichia, Vibrio, Yersinia, Salmonella) were identified amongst others in O. flavescens indicating a reservoir role for these pinnipeds in marine ecosystem. Current data should be considered as a baseline study for future monitoring surveys on anthropozoonotic pathogens circulating in wild free-living sea lions and their possible impact on public health issues and marine wildlife

The Magellania venosa Biomineralizing Proteome: A Window into Brachiopod Shell Evolution

Brachiopods are a lineage of invertebrates well known for the breadth and depth of their fossil record. Although the quality of this fossil record attracts the attention of paleontologists, geochemists, and paleoclimatologists, modern day brachiopods are also of interest to evolutionary biologists due to their potential to address a variety of questions ranging from developmental biology to biomineralization. The brachiopod shell is a composite material primarily composed of either calcite or calcium phosphate in close association with proteins and polysaccharides which give these composite structures their material properties. The information content of these biomolecules, sequestered within the shell during its construction, has the potential to inform hypotheses focused on describing how brachiopod shell formation evolved. Here, using high throughput proteomic approaches and next generation sequencing, we have surveyed and characterized the first shell-proteome and shell-forming transcriptome of any brachiopod, the South American Magellania venosa (Rhynchonelliformea: Terebratulida). We find that the seven most abundant proteins present in the shell are unique to M. venosa, but that these proteins display biochemical features found in other metazoan biomineralization proteins. We can also detect some M. venosa proteins that display significant sequence similarity to other metazoan biomineralization proteins, suggesting that some elements of the brachiopod shell-forming proteome are deeply evolutionarily conserved. We also employed a variety of preparation methods to isolate shell proteins and find that in comparison to the shells of other spiralian invertebrates (such as mollusks) the shell ultrastructure of M. venosa may explain the effects these preparation strategies have on our results

Using remote sensing to detect whale strandings in remote areas: the case of sei whales mass mortality in Chilean Patagonia

We test the ability of Very High Resolution satellite (VHR) imagery to detect stranded whales using both manual and automated methods. We use the 2015 mass mortality event in the Gulf of Penas locality, central Patagonia, Chile, as an initial case study. This event was the largest known mass mortality of baleen whales, with at least 343 whales, mainly sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis), documented as stranding. However, even with such a large number of whales, due to the remote location of the gulf the strandings went unrecorded for several weeks. Aerial and boat surveys of the area were conducted two to four months after the mortality event. In this study we use 50cm resolution WorldView2 imagery to identify and count strandings from two archival images acquired just after the stranding event and two months before the aerial and ground surveys, and to test manual and automated methods of detecting stranded whales. Our findings show that whales are easily detected manually in the images but due to the heterogeneous colouration of decomposing whales, spectral indices are unsuitable for automatic detection. Our satellite counts suggest that, at the time the satellite images were taken, more whales were stranded than recorded in the aerial survey, possibly due to the non-comprehensive coverage of the aerial survey or movement of the carcases between survey acquisition. With even higher resolution imagery now available, satellite imagery may be a cost effective alternative to aerial surveys for future assessment of the extent of mass whale stranding events, especially in remote and inaccessible areas