Intertidal and shallow water amphipods (Amphipoda: Gammaridea and Corophiidea) from Isla Pérez, Alacranes Reef, southern Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

Tropical coral reefs are known to exhibit high levels of biodiversity. Amphipod crustaceans are successfully adapted to a wide range of marine habitats in coral reefs, but some regions, such as the Campeche Bank in southern Gulf of Mexico, are poorly studied or even unsurveyed for amphipods. To begin to address this paucity of information, the present study records amphipod species from Isla Pérez, an island of the Alacranes Reef National Park, southern Gulf of Mexico. Twenty sites were sampled in the intertidal zone and shallow water adjacent to the island. Thirty-one species of amphipod were identified, 15 of which represented a geographical range extension to the northern Yucatan Peninsula, with four new records for the Mexican south-east sector of the Gulf of Mexico; nine for the Gulf Coast of Mexico; and two for the entire Gulf of Mexico. Significantly, a difference in faunal composition between windward and leeward areas of the intertidal zone was found.