Levantamento da espongofauna de um ambiente recifal raso do litoral paraibano.

Abstract

Sponges are invertebrates present in the entire aquatic ecosystem, both in marine life environments and inland waters, and are one of the phylum that present individuals with very different colorations and large morphological variations. Due the lack of visibility of this group in brazilian northeastern and the few professionals working with these animals, where this is clearly visible in the few works with Porifera in Paraiba State, it was aimed to make a field research of the sponge fauna of the reef shallow environment in the Carapibús beach (Conde - PB) to determine the sponges’ distribution in the environment. In the field, between March of 2015 and April of 2016, were used a simple mercury thermometer, refractometer and visit to websites for the abiotic data record. As regards the biological data, it followed an adapted form the version 5.4 protocol developed by AGRRA©. The reef environment has been mapped and divided into three zones, which have their respective characterizations. These zones served to the location, quantification and measurement of sponges and also to measure the water column. For data analysis, were used the STATISTICA software version 13 with Kolvogrov-Smirnoff test and Shapiro-Wilk to obtain means, standard deviations and standard errors concerning the species. And for the mean variance of characters covered by the species, variance analysis (ANOVA) (F) were made and for relationship between quantitative variables was used Pearson Correlation (r) with significance level of α = 0,05. The abiotic influences characterization on the occurring sponges occurred after evidence that the abiotic variables of the site are within the expected standard for reef environments. The sponges’ species’ identification was made through the use of a digital database mounted after the data collection from the field, where Cinachyrella alloclada (n = 367) had a higher occurrence of significance in the three zones; Haliclona (Reniera) implexiformis species has shown to be the most adapted to the environment and the stress caused by abiotic factors and anthropic influences; Haliclona (Reniera) manglaris was the species that showed higher growth in length; and Tedania (Tedania) ignis was the species with the highest growth for height. After all descriptions, the data obtained and the objectives achieved, it could be seen that this work has unprecedented importance to the state, since weren’t found work related to abiotic correlation data with biological data stemmed from a local sponge fauna.