Author(s)

Pedro Flores-Rodríguez¹, Rafael Flores-Garza¹, Sergio García-Ibáñez¹, Carmina Torreblanca-Ramírez², Lizeth Galeana-Rebolledo¹, Enedina Santiago-Cortes¹

¹Laboratorio de Ecología Costera y Sustentabilidad, Unidad Académica de Ecología Marina, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Acapulco, Mexico.
²Doctorado en Ciencias Ambientales, Unidad de Ciencias de Desarrollo Regional, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Acapulco, Mexico.

The community of mollusks at three rocky intertidal zone in Oaxaca, Mexico was analyzed. Two samplings per site were conducted. At each sampling the inspected area was 10 m². The sampling unit was 1 m². 5862 specimens were examined. 68 mollusks species were identified. The families better represented in species richness were: FISSURELLIDAE, MURICIDAE, LOTIIDAE, MYTILIDAE, CHAMIDAE, ISCHNOCHITONIDAE y CHITONIDAE. The species that had the greatest density were Lottia discors, Siphonaria palmata, Lottia acutapex, Chormoytilus palliopunctatus, Brachidontes adamsianus, Chton articulatus e Ischnochiton muscarius. The species with the widest distribution represent 11.76%. With irregular distribution was found in 58.82% of the species. The gastropod Crucibulummonticulus, the bivalve C. palliopunctatus and the polyplacophoran C. articulatus had the greatest size. The value of diversity index was H’ = 4.29 bits/ind. and J’ = 0.72. The mollusks community in the rocky intertidal zone study sites is characterized by small size, because they rarely exceed seventy millimeters. The values of H’ and J’ indicate that the mollusk community in the study area has a high diversity and high uniformity, corresponding to mature and stable communities in a tropical region.

Intertidal Zone, Oaxaca, Biodiversity, Mollusks

Flores-Rodríguez, P. , Flores-Garza, R. , García-Ibáñez, S. , Torreblanca-Ramírez, C. , Galeana-Rebolledo, L. and Santiago-Cortes, E. (2014) Mollusks of the Rocky Intertidal Zone at Three Sites in Oaxaca, Mexico. Open Journal of Marine Science, 4, 326-337. doi: 10.4236/ojms.2014.44029.