Diversity and occurrence of nudibranchs in Thailand
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BIODIVERSITY OF CORAL REEFS
Diversity and occurrence of nudibranchs in Thailand Suchana Chavanich & Voranop Viyakarn & Kitithorn Sanpanich & Larry G. Harris
Received: 15 April 2012 / Revised: 18 December 2012 / Accepted: 19 December 2012 / Published online: 10 January 2013 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract The diversity and occurrence of nudibranchs were studied during a 10-year survey in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, Thailand. We recorded 96 species in 40 genera and 17 families at 0–20 m depth, which resulted in a total of 136 species in Thai waters in combination with previous studies. The largest group was the suborder Doridina (81 % of the species), followed by the suborder Aeolidina (15 %). The Chromodorididae, Phyllidiidae, and Discodorididae were the most dominant families. During the surveys, 39 % of the nudibranch species was found on coral rubble, 28 % on sand, 8 % on rock, and 25 % in association with sessile organisms. Keywords Nudibranch molluscs . Opisthobranchia . Thailand . Diversity . Distribution . Substrate
Introduction Nudibranchs (Order Nudibranchia) are gastropod molluscs that form the major part of the sea slugs belonging to the Opistobranchia (Bouchet and Rocroi 2005). They can be found in a wide range of habitats, from polar regions to the tropics and from the intertidal to the deep sea (Clark 1975; Nybakken 1978; Gosliner and Draheim 1996; Cobb and Willan 2006; S. Chavanich (*) : V. Viyakarn Reef Biology Research Group, Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand e-mail: [email protected] K. Sanpanich Institute of Marine Science, Burapha University, Chonburi 20131, Thailand L. G. Harris Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
Debelius and Kuiter 2007; Su et al. 2009). A complete global pattern of nudibranch species diversity and abundance is difficult to assess, since some of these animals are difficult to identify, and they can be cryptic or camouflaged and therefore difficult to find. However, more than 2,000 nudibranch species are recorded in the Indo-Pacific (Gosliner et al. 2008). Despite their popularity as subjects for underwater photography and the presence of bioactive compounds (e.g., in the family Phyllidiidae), few studies have been conducted on their biology and ecology (e.g., Brunckhorst 1991; Yonow 1992; Gosliner and Draheim 1996; Gosliner 2000; van Alphen et al. 2011; van der Meij and Reijnen 2012). In Thailand, several studies on their diversity and distribution have been conducted (Jensen 1998, 2007; Sittithaweepat 2001; Swennen et al. 2001; Thamrongnawasawat et al. 2007; Chavanich et al. 2010). This paper documents the diversity of nudibranchs found during a 10-year survey in Thailand, with a distinction between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.
Materials and methods The surveys were conducted in Thai waters, especially on coral reefs, both in the Gulf of Thailand and in the Andaman Sea
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