Macroalgal Diversity of Santa Cesarea-Castro (Salento Peninsula, Southeastern Italy)
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Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid 73(2): e042 2016. ISSN: 0211-1322. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/ajbm.2412 Macroalgal diversity of Santa Cesarea-Castro (Salento Peninsula, southeastern Italy) Antonella Bottalico1*, Giuseppina Alongi2 & Cesira Perrone1 1 Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari “A. Moro”, Via E. Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy; [email protected] 2 Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Catania, Via A. Longo 19, 95125 Catania, Italy 3FDJCJEP*7"DFQUBEP7***1VCMJDBEPPOMJOF9* Abstract Resumen Bottalico, A., Alongi, G. & Perrone, C. 2016. Macroalgal diversity of Bottalico, A., Alongi, G. & Perrone, C. 2016. Diversidad de macroalgas Santa Cesarea-Castro (Salento Peninsula, southeastern Italy). Anales de Santa Cesarea-Castro (península de Salento, sudeste de Italia). Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 73(2): e042. Jard. Bot. Madrid 73(2): e042. The benthic macroalgal flora from the eastern Ionian coastal area of the La flora bentónica marina de la zona costera jónica de la península Salentina, Peninsula Salentina is scarcely studied. This study gives a contribution situada en el extremo sudeste de la región italiana de Apulia, está poco estu- to the knowledge on its biodiversity in this area, which also includes diada. Este trabajo contribuye al conocimiento de la biodiversidad de algas de marine caves, and the geographical distribution of some interesting esta zona e incluye también cuevas marinas, así como la distribución geográ- species. A total of 174 macroalgae (119 Rhodophyta, 27 Ochrophyta, fica de algunas de sus especies más interesantes. Se han encontrado un total and 28 Chlorophyta) were identified. Six species are first records for the de 174 macroalgas (119 Rhodophyta, 27 Ochrophyta y 28 Chlorophyta). region, one of which, Liagora ceranoides, represents a new record for Seis especies han sido identificadas por primera vez en la región, una de the Italian flora. The vegetation of most of the wave-exposed rocky sub- las cuales, Liagora ceranoides, representa un nuevo registro para la flora strata, as well as of the two sulphureous caves at Santa Cesarea Terme italiana. La vegetación característica de la mayoría de los sustratos rocosos is characterised by extensive populations of Corallinales. The chorologi- expuestos, así como de las dos cuevas sulfurosas de Santa Cesarea Terme, cal spectrum of the flora shows a high occurrence of Indo-Pacific and consiste en extensas poblaciones de Corallinales. El espectro corológico de la Circumtropical elements, thus resulting more similar to that of floras of flora muestra una alta incidencia de elementos indo-pacíficos y circuntropi- the Greek Ionian Sea. cales, lo que la asimila a las floras del Mar Jónico griego. Keywords: Apulia, biodiversity, Liagora ceranoides, macroalgae, marine Palabras clave: Apulia, biodiversidad, cuevas marinas, Liagora caves, tropicalisation. ceranoides, macroalgas, tropicalización. Copyright: © 2016 CSIC. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-by) Spain 3.0 License. INTRODUCTION (Bottalico & al., 2014), and Parviphycus bompardii A. Bottalico & al. (Bottalico & al., 2015). The evaluation of marine macroalgal diversity of The present paper aims to fill up the previously men- Apulia (southeastern Italy) is particularly interesting due tioned gap, giving a contribution to the knowledge of the to the vast coastline of this region (994.6 km, including the benthic macroalgal flora along the eastern Ionian coastline Tremiti Islands) and its geographical position, acting as a between Santa Cesarea Terme and Castro. Both the towns are bridge between the east and the west of the Mediterranean basin. An inventory of the Apulian macroalgal flora, based included in the “Regional Natural Park of the Otranto-Santa on the available literature, was published more than ten Maria di Leuca Coast and Tricase Wood” and the coastline years ago by Cormaci & al. (2001) and reported 616 taxa strip falls within the area that will soon receive designa- at specific and infraspecific level (37 species inquiren- tion as a marine protected area under the name “Peninsula dae included), representing about the 65% of the entire Salentina” (cf. www.minambiente.it). The earliest data from Italian flora (Furnari & al., 2010). The Apulian flora of the this area are those by Huvé & al. (1963), who reported Adriatic side resulted to be richer than the Ionian one (569 19 species collected at Santa Cesarea Terme, whereas a vs. 450 species). These dissimilarities, probably due to dif- more consistent number of records can be found in Lazzo ferent coastline extents (~600 vs. 230 km), also definitely & al. (2002) and Bottalico & al. (2011). Phytobenthos of the reflect the scarce floristic surveys carried out on the Ionian Castro coastline has never been studied to date. shores, with several large areas, such as the eastern Several marine karstic caves characterised by sharp physi- Ionian side, still remaining poorly explored (Cormaci cal, chemical and hydrodynamic gradients emphasise the value & al., 2001). Afterwards, very few floristic papers on the of this area. The caves represent one of the most important lit- Apulian coasts were published (Bottalico & Delle Foglie, toral environments in Apulia, the Italian region with the highest 2003; Cecere & al., 2005). New records were occasionally density of marine caves. Submerged and partially submerged reported (Bottalico & Delle Foglie, 2002; Bottalico & al., marine caves are protected by the EC and listed in Annex I of 2006) and three new species were described: Parviphycus the Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC as a habitat of Community felicinii C. Perrone & C.I. Delle Foglie (Perrone & Delle Interest. A few studies have addressed the archeological, pale- Foglie, 2006), Parviphycus albertanoae A. Bottalico & al. ontological and faunistic importance of such interesting sites * Corresponding author. A. Bottalico & al. 2 and no attempts to inventory macroalgal diversity, with the all seasons, from September 2012 to August 2013, and exception of Grotta delle Viole (Tremiti Islands, Adriatic Sea) from April 2013 to February 2014; with this schedule, it (Pignatti & al., 1967), were made. In order to contribute to the was possible to collect species with different life strate- basic knowledge of the phytobenthos of these poorly-known gies. Samples were collected by SCUBA along 7 tran- habitats, the benthic algal flora of three semi-submerged sects arrayed perpendicularly to the coastline (5 at Santa marine caves of the area was also studied. Cesarea Terme and 2 at Castro) (Fig. 1, Table 1) from the Thus the present inventory also represents an initial ref- midlittoral zone to a maximum depth of 30 m, for a total erence that may be useful to the sustainable management of of 216 samples (55 in spring, 57 in summer, 54 in autumn, the future marine protected area, as well as a solid frame- and 50 in winter). work and a starting point to understand the current status The sampling inside the caves (Fig. 1) was carried out in and possible future changes in biodiversity that could here- the same periods and samples were collected randomly from after occur on the medium and long term. the entrance up to approximately 10 m inwards each cave. Sample collection both into the caves and on open coast MATERIAL AND METHODS was made by hand or with a chisel in order to remove basal portions, encrusting algae or mat-forming algae, attempt- Description of study area ing to gather as many species as possible by sampling dif- ferent microhabitats. Fresh material was observed under a The “Peninsula Salentina”, described as the “heel” of Leica MZ 7.5 steromicroscope (Leica, Wetzlar, Germany). the Italian “boot”, represents the easternmost area of Italy, Sections of thalli were obtained by hand or, if necessary, with stretching between the Gulf of Taranto and the Otranto a DSK-1000 vibratome (Dosaka, Kyoto, Japan) and prop- Channel. The western coastline is entirely bordered by erly stained. Photomicrographs and measurements were the Ionian Sea, whereas the eastern one by the Adriatic made using an Olympus BX-40 light microscope (Olympus, Sea up to the Capo d’Otranto and the Ionian Sea up to Melville, USA) fitted with a Nikon Coolpix 990 digital cam- the Capo Santa Maria di Leuca. By convention, the Strait era (Nikon, Tokyo, Japan). The collected material was pre- of Otranto represents the boundary between the Adriatic served in 4% buffered formalin/seawater and/or prepared and the Ionian seas. Santa Cesarea Terme is at 6 km south as herbarium specimens. The most interesting exsiccata of the Capo d’Otranto and is located on a cliff opposite were deposited in the Herbarium Horti Botanici Barensis the Otranto Channel; Castro is located approximately (BI, Italy). Herbarium abbreviation follows Thiers (2014). at 8 km south of Santa Cesarea Terme. The investigated For nomenclature purposes, the following taxonomic data- coastline is characterised by rocky cliffs of Cretaceous bases were used: Index Nominum Algarum (Silva, 2014) limestone exposed to intense hydrodinamism and occa- and AlgaeBase (Guiry & Guiry, 2014). After sorting, mac- sionally interspersed with short tracts of sandy bottom. roalgal taxa were identified according to the methodology of The coastline is dominated by a steep slope extending Cormaci & al. (2004). In the floristic list (Table 2) for each from approximately +120 m to approximately −50 m. The species sampling stations, bathimetric