DISTRIBUTION and SALINITY TOLERANCE in the AMPHIURID BRITTLESTAR, OPHIOPHRAGMUS FILOGRANEUS (LYMAN, 187Sr
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DISTRIBUTION AND SALINITY TOLERANCE IN THE AMPHIURID BRITTLESTAR, OPHIOPHRAGMUS FILOGRANEUS (LYMAN, 187Sr LOWELL P. THOMAS The Marine Laboratory, University of Miami ABSTRACT A brief discussion of the ecology and distribution of Ophiophragmus filograneus (Lyman) is given. This species is reported from salinities as low as 7.7%0' apparently a record low for echinoderms. Other examples of estuarine echinoderms are discussed. The amphiurid brittlestar Ophiophragmus filograneus (Lyman, 1875) was originally described from the Cedar Keys region of the west coast of Florida. Since its description this species has been re- ported only once, when Pearson (1936) found it in Biscayne Bay near Miami. The writer has collected O. filograneus on the Florida east coast as far north as Melbourne where it occurs in the Indian River, and as far south as Whitewater Bay in the Everglades National Park. Other specimens were taken at Ft. Myers and Marco on the west coast and Lake Worth on the east coast. In all cases they were captur- ed in the soft mud of bays separated from the ocean by land masses. Generally O. filograneus is associated with the marine monocotyledon Diplanthera wrightii (Ascherson) which has recently been treated by Phillips (1960). An apparently closely related ophiuroid, Ophio- phragmus wurdemani Lyman occurs in fine quartz sand of shallow, more saline waters along Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coast beaches. While taking bottom samples from eastern Whitewater Bay during the summer of 1958 in connection with an ecological survey of Florida Bay estuaries financed by the State Board of Conservation, Marine Laboratory workers repeatedly captured many specimens of O. filograneus in areas of rather low salinity. The writer is indebted to his fellow workers, David L. Dubrow, Raymond B. Manning, and particularly Durbin C. Tabb for their aid in obtaining specimens and hydrographic data. Water samples were taken from the surface and a few inches off the bottom, read with a hydrometer, and corrected for temperature. The water in the areas sampled was five to eight feet deep and the bottom was soft gray mud with sparse Diplanthera growth. IContribution No. 309 from The Marine Laboratory, University of Miami. 1961] Thomas: Brittlestar 159 Specimens were obtained using both a small Peterson type grab and by scooping up bottom sediment with a dip-net. Associated with the brittlestar were the pelecypods Anomalocardia cuneimeris Conrad and Macoma mitchelli Dall, the gastropod Melongena corona Gmelin, a polychaete Cistenides sp., and a brachyuran crab Rithropanopeus harris;; (Gould). At stations in Coot and Whitewater Bays where O. filograneus was collected, bottom salinities of 7.7, 8.5, 8.7, 8.8, 9.4, 12.7, and 14%0 were recorded. Surface salinities were generally several parts per thousand lower than bottom salinities. Due to fresh water run-off from the everglades the influence of the tides is often slight in this estuary and periods of low salinity may last for weeks, particularly in eastern Whitewater Bay. O. filograneus apparently tolerates these low salinities for extended periods of time. Since 1959, salinities have steadily decreased until now the water is almost fresh and no brittlestars appear to exist in the sample areas. The phylum Echinodermata is well known as an exclusively marine assemblage. In the well studied Baltic area Ophiura albida Forbes and Asterias rubens Linnaeus may be found in salinities as low as ten parts per thousand, but do not exist east of the Belt Sea where salinities are lower (Brattstrom, 1941). Loosanoff (1945) found that Asterias forbesi (Desor) of the northwestern Atlantic is able to tolerate short salinity drops but dies when subjected to low salinities for'more than a few days. In salinities of 7.5%0 all of his specimens died within 48 hours. At 12%0 all died within 106 hours, and at 14%0 all were dead after 13 days. A considerable degree of tolerance was observed at 16%0, the specimens living for one to two months. Loosanoff also found that his specimens often died in normal sea water after varying eJ\.posures to low salinities. H. L. Clark (1907) reports a synaptid holothurian from the Philippines, Protankyra similis Semper, living in the mud of brackish mangrove swamps, but no salinity data is given. Another holothurian, Synaptula hydriformis (Lesueur), occurs in Lovers' Lake, a land-locked body of water on St. George in the Ber- mudas (H. L. Clark, 1942). This lake apparently has subterranean connections with the sea, and the salinity given for the lake by Clark was 35%0, only 1.4%0 below Bermuda sea-water salinity of 36.4%0. However, Dr. Hilary B. Moore informs the writer that salinities may be considerably lower than 35%0 in Lovers' Lake during periods of heavy rainfall. In the voluminous literature of estuarine ecology there are many 160 Bulletin of Marine Science of the Gulf and Caribbean [11 (1) mentions of these and a few other species penetrating more or less into brackish water, but the writer knows of no echinoderms which exist in salinities lower than those tolerated by O. filograneus. LITERATURE CITED BRATTSTROM, H. 1941. Studien liber die Echinodermen des Gebietes zwischen Skagerrak und Ostee, besonders des Oeresundes, mit einer Obersicht tiber die physische Geographie. Unters. aus dem Oeresund (27), 329 pp., 58 charts, 18 figs. CLARK, HUBERT LYMAN 1907. The apodus holothurians. Smithson. Contr. Knowl. 35 (1723): 1-231, 13 pIs. 1942. The echinoderm fauna of Bermuda. Bull. Mus. compo ZooI. Harv., 89 (8): 367-391, 1 pl. LOOSANOFF, VICTOR A. 1945. Effects of sea water of reduced salinities upon starfish, A. forbesi, of Long Island Sound. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts. Sci., 36; 813-835. PEARSON, J. F. W. 1936. Studies of the life zone of marine waters adjacent to Miami, 1. The distribution of the Ophiuroidea. Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., 1; 66-72. PHILLIPS, RONALD C. 1960. Environmental effect on leaves of Diplanthera Du Petit-Thouars. Bull. Mar. Sci. Gulf & Carib., 10(3): 346-353..