1528-1533Diversity of Echinoderms was studied in situ in rocky reefs areas of the south west coast of India from Goa (Lat. N 15°21.071’; Long. E 073°47.069’) to Kanyakumari (Lat. N 08°06.570'; Long. E 077°18.120') via Karnataka and Kerala. The underwater visual census to assess the biodiversity was carried out by SCUBA diving. This study reveals 11 new records to Goa, 7 to Karnataka, 5 to Kerala and 7 to the west coast of Tamil Nadu. A total of 15 species representing 12 genera, 10 families, 8 orders and 5 Classes were recorded namely Holothuria atra, H. difficilis, H. leucospilota, Actinopyga mauritiana, Linckia laevigata, Temnopleurus toreumaticus, Salmacis bicolor, Echinothrix diadema, Stomopneustes variolaris, Macrophiothrix nereidina, Tropiometra carinata, Linckia multifora, Fromia milleporella and Ophiocoma scolopendrina. Among these, the last three are new records to the west coast of India. Present work also stresses the importance novel techniques to data collection on echinoderm diversity in rocky shores of west coast of India

Chandran, Rethnaraj

Chandrasekar, Surendar

Lazarus, Singarayan

Nisha, Jayasingh Chellama

Rajan, Gigi Chandra

Satyanarayana, Chowdula

English

NOPR

Indian Journal of Geo Marine Sciences Vol. 48 (10), October 2019, pp. 1528-1533       In situ observations increase the diversity records of Rocky-reef inhabiting Echinoderms along the South West Coast of India Surendar Chandrasekar1*, Singarayan Lazarus2, Rethnaraj Chandran3, Jayasingh Chellama Nisha3,  Gigi Chandra Rajan4 and Chowdula Satyanarayana1 1Marine Biology Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Chennai 600 028, Tamil Nadu, India 2Institute for Environmental Research and Social Education, No.150, Nesamony Nagar, Nagercoil 629001, Tamil Nadu, India 3GoK-Coral Transplantation/Restoration Project, Zoological Survey of India - Field Station, Jamnagar 361 001, Gujrat, India 4Department of Zoology, All Saints College, Trivandrum 695 008, Kerala, India *[Email: surendar703@gmail.com] Received 19 January 2018; revised 23 April 2018 Diversity of Echinoderms was studied in situ in rocky reefs areas of the south west coast of India from Goa  (Lat. N 15°21.071’; Long. E 073°47.069’) to Kanyakumari (Lat. N 08°06.570’; Long. E 077°18.120’) via Karnataka  and Kerala. The underwater visual census to assess the biodiversity was carried out by SCUBA diving. This study reveals  11 new records to Goa, 7 to Karnataka, 5 to Kerala and 7 to the west coast of Tamil Nadu. A total of 15 species representing 12 genera, 10 families, 8 orders and 5 Classes were recorded namely Holothuria atra, H. difficilis, H. leucospilota, Actinopyga mauritiana, Linckia laevigata, Temnopleurus toreumaticus, Salmacis bicolor, Echinothrix diadema, Stomopneustes variolaris, Macrophiothrix nereidina, Tropiometra carinata, Linckia multifora, Fromia milleporella and Ophiocoma scolopendrina. Among these, the last three are new records to the west coast of India. Present work also stresses the importance novel techniques to data collection on echinoderm diversity in rocky shores of west coast of India. [Keywords: Rocky reefs, Echinoderms, West Coast of India]. Introduction Rocky reefs refer to all areas of rocky outcrops or boulders occurring within marine and estuarine waters below the highest high tide level. Rocky reefs are distributed along the tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions. They are the main supporters for the growth of seaweeds. Rocky reefs are similar to coral reefs in terms of providing habitats and harboring biodiversity1.  The Mainland of India has a vast coastline with diverse marine ecosystems and marine biodiversity. The South East Coast of India and their biodiversity have been studied exhaustively 2. Apart from a few places in coast of Gujrat and Goa which contain fringing coral reef, the west coast of India is mainly characterized by the presence of rocky reefs and rocky outcrops3, 4 which also includes chains of submerged and exposed rocky islands such as Netrani of the coast of Karnataka. Among the marine ecosystems of India, rocky reefs habitats are distinctive and least studied5. Most in situ studies on the west coast of India were on Scleractinian coral diversity6, 7 and fish ecological studies8, 9, 10. There is a huge knowledge gap on the status of other lesser known organisms like Echinoderms, which inhabit these rocky areas.  Echinoderms are highly diverse, exclusively marine creatures. They are distributed from intertidal region to abyssal depth in all seas and all latitudes11. Around 7000 species of echinoderms are reported worldwide of which 741 species have so far been found in India12. Some echinoderms are important as they are keystone species among different marine ecosystems. High diversity of echinoderms is associated with coral and rocky reefs of shallow water areas13. Plancus and Gualitire (1743) started the first exploration of echinoderms in Goa14. Reports on the occurrence of various species of echinoderms in South West Coast of India are scattered in different works13, because no major targeted exploration has been conducted for echinoderms in this region. James (2007)15 termed the echinoderm diversity of the west cost of India as ―Terra incognita” because of the lack of exploration in these regions. He listed only 59 species from the Gulf of Kutch to Tamil Nadu along the west cost of India of which 25 were from SURENDAR et al.: IN SITU OBSERVATION INCREASES ECHINODERMS DIVERSITY   1529 Kerala coast alone. In 2016 Raghunathan et al. reviewed available literature and presented 123 species of echinoderms out of a total of 777 (revised to 741, see Samuel et al., 2017) in the East coast of India, excluding the Gulf of Kutch region, whereas 343 species are so far reported along the east coast of peninsular India16. This relatively low diversity was due to the lack of intensive exploration with diverse sampling methods and this list was prepared based on fisheries bycatch data alone in the west coast of India. Other recent contributions are by Sastry (2007 & 2012)13, 17, Rajkumar and Ebanasara (2008)18, Hegde and Rivonker (2013)19 Hedge et al. (2013)20, Velip and Rivonker (2015)21, Ravinesh and Bijukumar (2013)22 who gave qualitative distribution records of echinoderms in the west cost of India. None of the above mentioned works were based on SCUBA diving observation, as all sampling were done by analyzing bycatches at landing centers. Sastry (2007)13 recommended the exploration of echinoderms by  diving and so this study focuses on in situ sampling by SCUBA diving in unexplored rocky reefs of the west cost of India to improve our understanding of the diversity of echinoderms in the west coast of India.  Material and methods The present pilot study was carried out in rocky reefs areas of the south west coast of India along  four maritime states - Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and the  west coast Tamil Nadu. The survey was initiated from  Goa (Lat. N 15°21.071’; Long. E 073°47.069’) and completed at Tamil Nadu (Lat. N 08°06.570’ ; Long. E 077°18.120’) via Karnataka and Kerala. Totally  24 stations were studied along this four states (Fig. 1). The survey was done by a random swim across  the rocky reefs using SCUBA and photographs were taken of all echinoderms that were encountered. Species were identified using field guides and monographs23. Distribution list of echinoderms  was prepared based on different previous reports  from the study area along with data collected in present works.   Fig. 1 —  Study areas (A. Goa, B Karnataka, C Kerala and D Tamil Nadu) INDIAN J. MAR. SCI., VOL. 48, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2019   1530 While identifying through photographs, we omitted some of the echinoderms due to bad photography and lack of easily observable characters to maintain the reliability of the species identity. In that most of them were from the class Crinoidea, which could be under represented in this study.  Result and discussion The study highlights 11 new records to Goa, 7 to Karnataka, 5 to Kerala and 7 to the west coast of Tamil Nadu due to the survey conducted by using SCUBA. The distribution list of rocky-reef inhabiting echinoderms along the west coast is given in Table 1. Totally 15 species of echinoderms (Plate 1) were enlisted representing 12 genera, 10 families, 8 orders and 5 classes. The most diverse and abundant family was Holothuroidea in all four study areas. Fourteen species of echinoderms were present in all four regions. This is different from previous studies because the present work concentrated on Table 1 — Distribution list of echinoderms in the south west coast of India based on current in situ survey Taxa Species  Goa Karnataka Kerala Tamil  Nadu Class: Holothuroidea       Order: Holothuriida       Family: Hotothuriidae       1 Holothuria atra * ** ** ** 2 H. difficilis * * ** * 3 H. leucospilota ** ** ** ** 4 Actinopyga mauritiana * ** * * Class: Asteroidea       Order: Valvatida       Family: Ophidiasteridae       5 Linckia laevigata * * ** * 6 L. multifora  * * * * Family: Goniasteridae       7 Fromia milleporella * * * * Class: Echinoidea       Order: Camarodonta       Family: Temnopleuridae       8 Temnopleurus toreumaticus ** ** ** ** 9 Salmacis bicolor * ** ** ** Order: Diadematoida       Family: Diadematidae       10 Echinothrix diadema * * * ** Order: Stomopneustoida       Family: Stomopneustidae       11 Stomopneustes variolaris ** ** ** ** Class: Ophiuroidea       Order: Amphilepeidida       Family: Ophiotrichidae       12 Macrophiothrix nereidina * * ** ** Order: Ophiacanthida Family: Ophiocomidae       13 Ophiocoma scolopendrina * * * * Class: Crinoidea        Order: Comatulida       Family: Comatulidae       14 Comaster schlegelii  - - † * Family: Tropiometridae       15 Tropiometra carinata * ** ** **  Notes: (*) New report.  (**) Reported in this study & also in different previous studies.  (†) Not reported in this study but reported in different previous studies.  (-) Not reported in this study & also in different previous studies. SURENDAR et al.: IN SITU OBSERVATION INCREASES ECHINODERMS DIVERSITY   1531 rocky reef ecosystem and sampled using SCUBA. Comaster schlegeli was the only species to have a limited range and found only in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu in this study and it was previously reported only in Kerala coast. This may be due to the high cryptic nature of C. schlegeli or limitation of sampling  in those localities. DB James (2007) reported a similarity in diversity of echinoderms between the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu and Vizhinjam coast in Kerala due to both locations lying in the same latitude15. Sastry (2007) mentioned that the high echinoderm diversity of Kerala may be due to its proximity to Lakshadweep13. However Kerala being one of the main fishing states of India, the echinoderms diversity could have been high due to the high amount of bycatch produced which was one of the main sampling methods in previous studies of echinoderms, whereas the other   Plate 1  INDIAN J. MAR. SCI., VOL. 48, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2019   1532 states along the west coast might have been comparatively less exploited and exploited with different fishing activities and gears. The Faunal diversity of echinoderms from the west coast of India is poor when compared with the south coast of India because of lack of coral beds and salinity changes due to heavy rain during southwest monsoon15. In 2007 Sastry reported only 16 species from Goa and mentioned clearly that it was a very low diverse area and states low diversity of echinoderms in Karnataka and Goa may be due to greater amount of sandy habitat compared to rocky habitat13. This study adds 11 new reports to Goa and  7 to Karnataka showing that the current sampling method greatly adds to our knowledge of echinoderms distribution. Rajkumar and Ebanasar (2008) studied the monthly occurrence of echinoderms at Muttom and Colachel coast in the South west coast of Tamil Nadu from 1992 to 1994 and reported 29 species of echinoderms18. This study reported an extra 5 new distribution records to Tamil Nadu coast. Many new records to the respective study areas clearly indicate the lack of exploration and inadequate sampling methodology by which echinoderms have been collected in the past. So the collection methods especially shore collection and by catch methods are not enough to assess the biodiversity of this phylum. Hence, there is a necessity to intensively explore with newer technologies such as SCUBA diving as compared to analyzing just bycatch.  Conclusion This pilot study, though limited in its scope in having surveyed only 24 locations on the approximate  2000 km coastline of western India, has increased  the known bio-geographic range of 11 species of echinoderms for this region. 3 species of echinoderms were found for the first time in the whole of the west coast of India during this study. This was possible only through insitu observations using SCUBA as earlier survey methods of using trawlers and surveying fishery bycatch could not detect these species. The west coast of India is characterized by different coastal habitats such as vertical rocky walls, crevices, caves, tunnels and overhangs which have been poorly explored. In our study areas most of the rocky reefs and rocky out crops were also colonized by corals. These regions are prime habitat for many echinoderms species. Intensive exploration by SCUBA diving is therefore necessary to further obtain many new records and possibly new species to science from the rocky reef regions of west coast of India.   Acknowledgement The authors are thankful to the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Government of India for providing necessary funds for operating GoK-Coral Transplantation/Restoration Project and Dr. C.U. Rivonker, Goa University, Mr. Kevin S Moses & Dr. T.S. Christopher Roy, ZSI, Chennai for their valuable suggestions.  References 1 Lazarus, S. and Chandran, R., Occurrence of a zooxanthellate scleractinian corals off Goa, mid-west coast of India. Mar. Biodiversity Rec., 9 (2016) 1-6. 2 Kumaraguru A K, Edwin J V, Marimuthu N, Jerald and Wilson J, Scientific information on Gulf of Mannar - A Bibliography. (Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies, Madurai Kamaraj University, India) 2006, pp. 656. 3 Nair, R. R. and Qasim, S. Z., Occurrence of a bank  with living corals off the southwest coat of India. Indian J. Mar. Sci., 7 (1978) 55-58. 4 Qasim, S. Z. and Wafar, M. V. M., Occurrence of living corals at several places along the west coast of India. Mahasagar. Bull. Nat. Inst. Oceanogr., 12 (1979) 53- 58. 5 Bakus G, Arthur R, Ekaratne, S U K. and Jinendradasa S S, India and Sri Lanka: Coral Reefs of the Indian Ocean: Their Ecology and Conservatiod, edited by McClanahan T R, Sheppard C R C and Obura D O, (Oxford University Press, Oxford) 2000, pp. 295-316. 6 Wafar, M. V. M., Corals and coral reefs of India.  Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., (1986) 19-43. 7 Pillai, C. S. G., and Jasmine, S., Sceleractinian corals  of the erstwhile Travancore coast. J. mar. biol. Assoc. India. 37(1) (1996) 109-125. 8 Sluka, R.D. & Lazarus, S., Grouper and wrasse biodiversity along the west coast of India. Newsletter of the IUCN Grouper and Wrasses Specialist Group, 8 (2004) 6–10.  9 Sluka, R. D. and Lazarus, S., Humphead Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) rare on the west coast of India. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U. K., 85 (2005) 1293–1294.  10 Sluka, R. D. and Lazarus, S., Grouper (Pisces: Serranidae) relative abundance and diversity on the west coast of India. Mar. Biodiversity Rec., 3 (2010) 71.  11 Hyman L H, The Invertebrates: Echinodermata Vol. IV (MacGraw-Hill, New York) 1955, pp763. 12 Samuel, V. K. D., Krishnan, P., Sreeraj, C. R., Chamundeeswari, K., Parthiban, C., Sekar, V., Patro, S., Saravanan, R., Abhilash, K. R., Ramachandran, P. and Ramesh, R., An updated checklist of Echinoderms from Indian waters. Zootaxa, 4354 (1) (2017) 1 - 68. 13 Sastry D R K, Echinodermata of India: An Annotated list. (Records of Zoological Survey of India, Accational Paper No. 271, India) 2007, pp. 387. 14 Plancus, J. and Gualtire, N., De Stella Marina Echinata Quindecim Radiis instructa Epistplae binae. (1743) SURENDAR et al.: IN SITU OBSERVATION INCREASES ECHINODERMS DIVERSITY   1533 15 James, D. B., Echinoderms of West Cost of India. Fishing Chimes, 27(7) (2007) 19-21. 16 Raghunathan C, Mondal T, and Nigam N K, Echinoderm diversity of India: Current Status of Marine Faunal Diversity in India, edited by Chandra K, Raghunathan C, Mandal T and Dash S, (Zoological Survey of India- India) 2016,  pp. 353-381. 17 Sastry, D. R. K., Mitra, S., Chitra, J. and Pattanaya, J. G.,  On a Collection of Echinodermata from Karnataka Coast, India. Rec. zool. Surv. India, 112 (4) (2012) 47-54. 18 Rajakumar, C. P. and Ebanasar, J., Diversity and Population Dynamics of Echinoderms from Muttom and Colachel Coasts in South West Coast of India. J. Basic Appl. Biol., 2(1) (2008) 69-82. 19 Hegde, M. R. and Rivonker C. U., A new record of Temnopleurus decipiens (de Meijere, 1904) (Echinoidea, Temnopleuroida, Temnopleuridae) from Indian waters. Zoosystema, 35 (1) (2013) 97-111. 20 Hegde, M. R., Padate, V. P., Velip, D. T., and Rivonker C. U., An updated inventory of new records of Coastal macrofauna along Goa, West Coast of India. Ind. J.  Geo-Mar. Sci., 42(7) (2013) 898-902. 21 Velip, D. T., and Rivonker, C. U., Trends and composition of trawl bycatch and its implications on tropical fishing grounds off Goa, India. Regional. Stud. Mar. Sci.,2 (2015) 65-75. 22 Ravinesh, R. and Bijukumar, A., Comparison of intertidal biodiversity associated with natural rocky shore and sea wall: A case study from the Kerala Coast, India. Ind. J. Geo-Mar. Sci., 42(2) (2013) 223-235. 23 Clark A M and Rowe F W E, The Monograph of shallow-water Indo-West Pacific echinoderms, (Trustees of the British Museum-Natural History, London) 1971, pp. 236.   

In situ observations increase the diversity records of Rocky-reef inhabiting Echinoderms along the South West Coast of India

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/51161/3/IJMS%2048%2810%29%201528-1533.pdf

In situ observations increase the diversity records of Rocky-reef inhabiting Echinoderms along the South West Coast of India

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

NOPR