Biodiversity and new records of benthic amphipods (Crustacea: Peracarida: Amphipoda) from coral reef protected natural areas in the Mexican Caribbean Sea

Abstract

The Mexican Caribbean Sea is the longest section of the Mesoamerican Caribbean Sea, with 16 protected marine areas. During 2015 and 2016, 2 sampling campaigns in the Puerto Morelos Coral Reef National Park and the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico, were carried out to determine the biodiversity of benthic amphipods. In addition, the previously documented amphipod data were included to summarize the first checklist of such amphipods along the Mexican Caribbean Sea. The present study found 35 families, 70 genera, and 121 species, of which 41 species had not been previously reported in the Mexican Caribbean Sea, and 5 species represented new records of amphipods from the Caribbean Sea. According to the information summarized in this amphipod’s inventory, both the coral reefs Puerto Morelos and Sian Ka’an, located in the north and central Mexican Caribbean Sea, represented the protected natural areas with the largest amounts of benthic amphipod species thus far.