Estudio del meiobentos en el Golfo de Guayaquil, (Río Guayas, Canal Cascajal y Estero Salado), Ecuador, en agosto de 1996

Abstract

Con este aporte al conocimiento de la meiofauna del Golfo de Guayaquil, se pretende comenzar a difundir los diferentes grupos de organismos que antes de este trabajo no se conocían que existían en nuestro país, esperando que se incentiven nuevos trabajos de investigación en el campo de la meiofauna, para llegar a saber realmente las especies que tenemos en el ecosistema más "rico y/o productivo" del Ecuador y del Pacífico Sud-este.

From the analysis of 16 sediments samples in 16 stations, located in the interior Gulf of Guayaquil, which includes: Guayas river, Cascajal chanel and "El Salado" estuary. 862 organisms are in 11 groups, belonging to 8 filum, were found from which, 6 filum were actually representatives of the meiofauna. The are: Nematoda, Artropoda (crustacea y Acari), Annelida (Polichaeta y Oligochaeta), Rotifera, Kinorryncha and Protozoa (ciliatea and Foraminifera). The filum which are not actually representative of this kinds organisms are: Mollusca and Chaetognatha. The nematoda are the most abundant and frecuent in the Gulf of Guayaquil with 73,2%. The total and relative abundance were observed in the Estero Salado while the low abundance were located in the Guayas river. Filum Kinorryncha and the order Acari that belong to the filum Artropoda are the first mentions for the Gulf of Guayaquil. tables that indicate the total and relative abundance of the differents groups of meiofauna, as well as their relationship with the salinity, temperature, oxygen and pH are presented and discused in this paper.