Taxonomy and diversity of hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) of Sergipe, Northeast Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the great advances in research on the taxonomy and ecology of hydroids of the Brazilian coast, those studies are concentrated in the Southeast and South regions of the country, leaving a gap in knowledge from the North and Northeast regions. Aiming to fill part of this gap, we studied the hydroids communities in the state of Sergipe, Northeast Brazil, in the continental shelf and in three estuarine regions. In the continental shelf, samplings with fishing trawls took place during the dry and rainy seasons of 1999-2003 (8 campaigns), from 18 stations distributed at depths of 10, 20, and 30 m. In the estuaries of the rivers Japaratuba, Sergipe and Vaza-Barris three ropes with six polyethylene plates were installed in each place and left submerged for three months in the dry and rainy periods of 2017. Seventy-nine hydroid species of 26 families were identified. Sixteen of these have been assigned to nine Anthoathecata families and the remaining 63 species to 17 Leptothecata families. Among the identified species, 60 are new records from Sergipe and among those, nine are also new records from the Northeast region and two from the Brazilian coast. Our results increase the hydroid records from Sergipe and extend the range of some species inside the Brazilian coast and the Atlantic Ocean, showing the potential for future studies in other environments of the Sergipe coast.