Comparative analysis of mollusks in the Los Petenes Biosphere Reserve and coastal lagoons in southeastern Mexico

Abstract

The phylum Mollusca is widely distributed in all types of environments. The species it contains are important for their multiple uses as food (as part of several trophic chains), as vectors of other groups of organisms, for the extraction of substances, and as sentinels of
natural and induced environmental changes. In this work, a comparative evaluation of the malacological biodiversity associated with different habitats in the Los Petenes Biosphere Reserve in Campeche and in eight coastal water bodies in southeastern Mexico was performed.
To obtain data comparable to those that were used in a previous study, data from the Los Petenes mollusks were obtained by collection of sediment cores 10 cm in diameter at a depth of 15 cm at 20 sites in different habitats every four months during 2014. For the other lagoons,
records were obtained from various published sources. For Los Petenes, a total of 175 species and 12,850 individuals were recorded. The species Rissoella caribaea was the most common and the most abundant. Comparative evaluation of each of the habitats that coexist in this ecosystem did not show significant changes in abundance. Similarly, faunal associations exhibited a sea-land gradient, and although the
differences in biomass were significant, species richness did not show the same pattern among habitats. The Los Petenes system as a whole exhibited some of the greatest biodiversity among the water bodies analyzed, and the Terminos lagoon showed the highest biodiversity (169
and 175 species, respectively). In contrast, the Sabancuy estuary featured fauna records with a richness of 43 species; in the Tupilco-Ostión lagoon, only 62 species were recorded, and in the rest of the lagoons, the numbers of species were even lower.