Riqueza de moluscos associados aos recifes do Morro de São Paulo, Ilha Tinharé, Bahia (Nordeste do Brasil).

Abstract

Brazil has a long coastal zone with about 10.800 km of extension. Bahia (northeastern Brazil) has about 1.100 km of coastline and a considerable variety of coastal ecosystems, consequently, with a high biodiversity that is still little known. This study aimed to document the biodiversity of mollusks associated with the reef ecosystems from the Morro de São Paulo located on the Tinharé island (State of Bahia, northeastern Brazil), which is an area little explored the point of zoological view. Manual collections were carried out in January 2015 and August 2016 in the reef ecosystems of the first, second and third beaches of Morro de São Paulo in the intertidal and subtidal zones during the low tide until about 1 m depth. The mollusk richness comprised 43 families and 81 gastropod species (85.36%); eight families and 13 species of bivalves (13.68%) and one species of Polyplacophora (1%). The mollusk richness identified in the studied area corresponded to double the amount of species in comparison to other malacofaunistic inventories in regions of the coast of Bahia. Such differences in the composition of molluscs in coastal ecosystems of Bahia highlight the importance of additional research with the group in the coastal zone of northeastern Brazil to better understand the characteristics of the different habitats and the richness of the species involved. Key words: Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Polyplacophora, reef ecosystem.