MARINE MACROALGAE FROM PANAQUATIRA BEACH, COASTAL AREA OF SÃO JOSÉ DE RIBAMAR, COAST OF MARANHÃO

Abstract

Coastal areas play an important role of connection and energy exchange between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, because they are transition regions and it is in these marine and coastal environments that it is possible to observe the occurrence of marine macroalgae. The samples were collected in the months Nov/17, in the dry season (PE), Feb/18 transition period (PT) and Apr/18 in the rainy season (CP). The study was conducted on the beach of Panaquatira, in the Estuarine Complex of São José (CESJ) – MA. The physicochemical data and nutrients of the seawater and the macroalgae collected in the rocky outcrops of Panaquatira beach, packed in jars and transported to the Laboratório de Biologia Vegetal e Marinha (LBVM/UEMA) and kept in freezer. Subsequently, screening was performed in order to isolate genera and species and taxonomic identification was performed with the aid of specialized literature. Similarity analysis, Jaccard similarity and analysis of variance were performed as statistical treatment. Salinity is one of the physicochemical variables that most influence the functional responses of organisms, being higher in drought. There were significant differences in salinity, pH, water transparency, turbidity and water temperature (p<0.05). For the nutrients, ammonia, nitrate, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, phosphate and silicate samples were significantly different. A total of 23 macroalgal taxa were identified on Panaquatira beach, with the Phylum Rhodophyta (76%) being the most representative. As for the similarity, there was an association between the sampling points, with greater similarity to drought and transition (82%). Most algae identified with red algae that are indicators of clean water in protected environments and without impacts.