A hot-spot of biodiversity in Northern Patagonia, Argentina

• Published in: Biodiversity and conservation Vol. 26; no. 14; pp. 3329 - 3342
• Main Authors: Güller, Marina, Zelaya, Diego G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2017; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Biodiversity hot spots; Biological diversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Coastal and marine biodiversity; Coastal ecosystems; Coasts; Commercial species; Conservation biology; Conservation Biology/Ecology; Ecology; Economic resources; Fauna; Gulfs; Life Sciences; Marine animals; Marine fauna; Marine molluscs; Mollusca; Mollusks; New records; New species; Original Paper; Protected areas; Protected species; Shellfish; Patagonia (region); Coastal protected areas; Mollusca; Invertebrates; Inventory; Diversity; Conservation
• ISSN: 0960-3115; 1572-9710
• DOI: 10.1007/s10531-017-1408-7

Located along the Argentine coastline of northern Patagonia, are San Matías (SMG) and San José (SJG) gulfs; although they are regarded as an area with a high-priority conservational status, knowledge on their diversity is currently fragmentary. Studies on molluscs from this area have been historically centred in economic resources and few works have referred to non-commercial species. The present study aims to document the biological diversity of molluscs at the SMG/SJG area, in order to determine the significance of these two gulfs in the context of the Argentine marine fauna; to evaluate how well represented is this fauna in three protected areas; and to compare the fauna present in the protected areas with that of a non-protected area. For that purpose, molluscs coming from 132 sampling stations, ranging from the intertidal to 170 m depth, were studied, and a thorough bibliographic compilation was performed. A total of 196 species of molluscs are reported for the area. Surprisingly, almost one third of these species lacked previous records for SMG/SJG, including several new/possibly new species. The three studied protected areas contain 88.3% of the species recognised for the entire SMG/SJG area. Although several species appear as exclusive from one of these three areas, many of them are also present in an intermediately located, non-protected area. Molluscan diversity at the SMG/SJG area is greater than previously thought, comprising about 41.4% of the bivalves and 37.8% of the gastropods present in the Argentine shelf; thus suggesting that the area may be considered as a hot-spot of diversity in the Argentine Sea.