Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 79 (1): 13-27, 2006
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Geographic distribution and description of four pelagic barnacles along the
south east Pacific coast of Chile - a zoogeographical approximation
The majority of zoogeographic studies along the Chilean Pacific coast
have focused on benthic organisms and oceanographic conditions are considered the main factors influencing their distributions.
Herein we examined the geographic distribution of pelagic barnacles of the family Lepadidae collected from floating macroalgae at
seven sampling areas between 23 and 50°S. Four species were encountered and they are briefly described herein. The most
abundant northern species was Lepas anatifera, and it diminished in abundance towards the south (33°S). Moreover, this
species was not found in waters with a sea surface temperature (SST) of less than ~18 ºC. Lepas australis, primarily a
circumpolar West Wind Drift species, diminished in abundance towards the north (33°S). This species was restricted to waters of <
18 ºC SST. A third species, L. pectinata, was encountered throughout almost the entire study area, but it was most
abundant between 29 and 33°S. The fourth species, Dosima fascicularis, was only found at two sampling areas, namely
at 27°S and 33°S, and this is the first record of this species from the central coast of Chile. The distributional pattern of the pelagic
barnacles found herein corresponds to the three main zoogeographic regions as revealed by the majority of previous studies based on
littoral organisms: the northern Peru-Chilean Province, the southern Magellanic Province, and the central Chilean Transition Zone
where the two provinces overlap. Even though the present study only considers four species of pelagic barnacles, the results support
the hypotheses on the importance of oceanographic conditions (in particular SST) in determining the zoogeographic patterns along the
south east Pacific coast of Chile.
Key words:
zoogeography,
Lepas, oceanography, pelagic, Cirripedia
