Project: Availability and exploitation of macroalgae and seaweeds in highly productive ecosystems of the Pacific coasts of Baja California Sur |
In the Pacific coasts of Baja California, there are large submarine prairies
formed by brown seaweed that emerge from the sea covering extensions of several
hectares or square kilometers.
Macroalgae, seaweeds, and live abalone in natural environment
These submarine prairies are characteristic of warm and cold waters just like
the ones of this coastal area of the country, and are known as highly productive ecosystems because a large variety of fishing resources live here, such as
abalone Haliotis spp., wavy turban snail Megastraea undosa and
lobster Panulirus spp., together with other algal species as Gelidium robustum. The presence of these resources has been the
economic origin and development of the fishermen who live in this region. The
importance of these highly productive systems has motivated the study of
distribution and abundance of the different species that live in them and the
environmental factors that influence them.
Collection of flora and fauna in rocky reefs.
The goal of this project is to evaluate in what measure availability and
exploitation of macroalgae and seaweeds have an influence in variety of production varietof
coastal marine resources in the Pacific region of Baja California Sur on the part of the marine animals
associated to algae and grass. Microalgae and seaweeds play an important role for the animals that grow
associated to them, because they are the main source of food for mollusks, or
habitat for spawning and protection of mollusks, crustaceans, and fish, or the
substrate over which an enormous variety of benthic animals are attached.
The characterization of the algal communities of these environments and their
exploitation as food and/or habitat in these ecosystems turns out to be
fundamentally important to help us understand production and the regeneration
processes of the individuals that are extracted as product of fishery
activities. On the other hand, the information obtained will contribute to
analyze the good working order of the ecosystem (macroalgae and consumers) from
a global perspective of the system.
As a result of this project we have
- Prepared a list of flora in the western coast of the Baja California peninsula;
- Identified the macroalga banks with higher biomass and species richness;
- Identified and described the diet for the Giant Keyhole limpet M. crenulata.
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Written by Dr. Elisa Serviere Zaragoza
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Last Updated on Monday, 05 July 2010 13:21 |
Fisheries Ecology 
