Preliminary study of aquatic hyphomycetes from Venezuelan streams
Estudio preliminar de hifomicetes acuáticos en cursos de agua dulce deVenezuela
Gunta Smits1, Rafael Fernández2 and Claudia Cressa3
1
Laboratorio de Fitopatología, Instituto de Biología Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Central de Venezuela. Apartado Postal 47114, Caracas 1041-A. Venezuela gsmits@strix.ciens.ucv.ve2
Departamento de Biología, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias y Tecnología, Universidad de Carabobo. Valencia, estado Carabobo. Venezuela. rfernandez2@uc.edu.ve3Laboratorio de Ecología de Sistemas Acuáticos Continentales, Instituto de Biología Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Central de Venezuela. Apartado Postal 47114, Caracas 1041-A. Venezuela ccressa@strix.ciens.ucv.v
]]> RESUMENSe reportan 50 especies de hifomicetes acuáticos encontrados en siete cursos de agua, de los cuales seis están ubicados en Parques Nacionales. La comunidad de hifomicetes presentó baja similitud ya que sólo cuatro especies fueron comunes en las diferentes localidades: Campylospora chaetocladia Ranzoni, Clavatospora tentacula Sv.Nilsson, Triscelophorus acuminatus Nawawi y Triscelophorus monosporus Ingold. La mayoría de los ríos tienen es-pecies particulares cuyo número oscila entre uno y tres. En el Río Los Castillos las especies fueron: Anguillospora longissima (Sacc. & P.Syd) Ingold, Angulospora aquatica Sv.Nilsson y Phalangispora nawawi Kuthub.; en la Quebrada Guatopo las especies encontradas fueron Clavariopsis azlanii Nawawi, Condylospora flexuosa Nawawi & Kuthub. e Hydrometrospo-ra symmetrica J.Gönczöl & Révay; para el Río Cabriales las especies fueron Camposporium antennatum Harkn., Phalangispora constrica Nawawi & J.Webster y Scorpiosporium chae-tocladium (Ingold) Dyko. Quebrada Martinera y Río Tocome tienen una especie exclusiva, Isthmotricladia gombakiensis Nawawi y Flabellospora verticillata Alas., respectivamente. El Río Cúpira y la Quebrada Ingenio no presentaron especies únicas. Se reportan 30 especies por primera vez para el país.
Palabras clave: Cursos de agua, Hifomicetes acuáticos, Parques Nacionales, Venezuela
ABSTRACT
Fifty species of aquatic hyphomycetes from seven streams, six of which are located in Venezuelan National Parks are reported. Community similarity of hyphomycetes was low since only four species were common to all sites: Campylospora chaetocladia Ranzoni, Clavatospora tentacula Sv.Nilsson, Triscelophorus acuminatus Nawawi and Triscelophorus monosporus Ingold. The streams had unique species whose number varies between one and three. In Río Los Castillos the species were: Anguillospora longissima (Sacc. & P.Syd.) Ingold, Angulospora aquatica Sv.Nilsson and Phalangispora nawawi Kuthub.; for Quebrada Guatopo the species were Clavariopsis azlanii Nawawi, Condylospora flexuosa Nawawi & Kuthub. and Hydrometrospora symmetrica J.Gönczöl & Révay; for Río Cabriales the species were Camposporium antennatum Harkn., Phalangispora constrica Nawawi & J.Webster, Scorpiosporium chaetocladium (Ingold) Dyko. Quebrada Martinera and Río To-come had one species unique Isthmotricladia gombakiensis Nawawi and Flabellospora verticillataAlas., respectively. Río Cúpira and Quebrada Ingenio do not have species exclusively to any of them. Thirty species are reported for the first time for the country.
Key words:
Aquatic hyphomycetes, National Parks, Streams, VenezuelaINTRODUCTION
Studies on aquatic hyphomycetes have been increasing due to the evidence of their importance on the energy flow of woodland streams (Baldy et al. 1995; Gulis & Suberkropp 2003; Methvin & Suberkropp 2003). In general, these studies have been taxonomical, which are few and have been conducted mainly in temperate streams (Sridhar et al. 1992; Schoenlein-Crusius & Piccolo 2003), or ecological which are more numerous but also mainly reported for temperate streams. The importance of hyphomycetes on degradation and decomposition of organic matter (allocthonous material) and the utilization by invertebrates (mainly shredders) as a food resource has been well established (Bärlocher & Kendrick 1981; Bärlocher 1992; Gessner & Chauvet 1994, 1997; Baldy & Gessner 1997; Gulis & Suberkropp 2003).
As mentioned before the information available on the description of aquatic hyphomycetes is primarily for streams of the temperate zone (Ingold 1975). Nevertheless, the few studies that have been done in the tropics, regardless of frequency or season, indicated that fungi are widespread and that the species found are mainly restricted to tropical waters (Crane & Dumont 1975; Ranzoni 1979; Sridhar et al. 1992; Thomas et al. 1992; Santos-Flores & Betancourt-López 1997; Sivichai & Hywel-Jones 1999; Schoenlein-Crusius & Piccolo 2003). Specifically for Venezuela, we have the report made by Nilsson (1962), which did not clearly specify sample sites and the paper by Crane & Dumont (1975) reporting only a new record for Venezuela and South America (Annellodochium ramulisporum Deighton). Therefore, due to the importance of the aquatic hyphomycetes and the scarce, sporadic and imprecise information that exist on the hyphomycetes fromVenezuela streams, a research project was started with special attention on streams of National Parks. This paper is the first on this research and its objective is to report with great emphasis the aquatic hyphomycetes from different streams of Venezuela.
METHODS
]]> Study areaThis study included seven streams located along the Cordillera de la Costa, one of the main mountain ranges of Venezuela. Six of the rivers and mountain streams are located in National Parks (Quebrada Martinera, Quebrada Guatopo, Quebrada Ingenio, Río Tocome, Río Cabriales and Río Cupira), while Río Los Castillos (10°29’54"–10°32’Lat. N,66°41’–66°43"Long. W) flows through private property (Club Izcaragua, Miranda State), but its headwaters are in El Avila National Park and are protected of human activities. The first three rivers are located in Guatopo National Park, Miranda State (9°57’–10°5’ Lat. N, 66°24’– 66°30’ Long. W) and have been the subject of several studies; detailed information on the sampling area is given on Cressa & Senior (1987) and Maldonado et al. (2001). Río Tocome (10°31’30.48" Lat. N, 66°54’37.2" Long. W) runs through the Parque Los Chorros, a locality on the south face of El Ávila National Park, Miranda State (facing Caracas). Cabriales (10°05’16.66"–10°21’28.3" Lat. N, 67°30’10"–68°00’ Long. W) and Cupira rivers (10°13’36.6"–10°19’56.6" Lat. N, 67°56’50"–67°58’13.3" Long. W) are located in the San Esteban National Park, Carabobo State (10°17’ 0"–10°31’10" Lat. N, 67°52’30"–68°5’10" Long. W). Even though all streams are located in protected areas, Quebrada Martinera (M), Quebrada Guatopo (GT) and Río Tocome (T) are subject to the influence of human recreational activities. Quebradas in Guatopo National Park and Izcaragua were sampled throughout 2002 and the rivers in San Esteban National Park were sampled during 2005. In general the vegetation in all the sampling places could be classified as submontane umbrophylus forest and seasonal semi-deciduos (Huber & Alarcón 1988).
Hyphomycetes collection
Water samples
Water samples were collected in polyethylene bottles (500 ml), two per sample site, added lactophenol and kept in a cooler until being processed. In the laboratory water was filtered (Millipore HA, 0.45 µm) and the filter was placed on a Petri dish, soaked with 1-2 ml of lactophenol-fucsine solution and sterilized water. After 24 h each filter was scrubbed and washed and the suspension centrifuged, placed on a concave slide and the material examined under a microscope.
Foam samples
Foam samples (three per sample site) were collected with a sterile spatula, stored in sterile Petri dishes and kept in a cooler. Once in the laboratory, a solution of lactophenol-fucsine was added to stain the conidia and slides were pre-pared to be examined under the microscope.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data presented is the summary of the examination of all samples with the methods described above. A total of 50 species were found with the following ranking for the sampling sites: Cabriales (34), Tocome (33), Los Castillos (33), Cúpira (31), Guatopo (26), Martinera (16), and Ingenio (14) (Table 1). Similarity among sites is low since only four species were found at all sites: Campylospora chaetocladia Ranzoni (Fig. 1a), Clavatospora tentacula Sv.Nilsson (Fig. 1b), Triscelophorus acuminatus Nawawi and Triscelophorus monosporus Ingold. Río Los Castillos, Cabriales and Quebrada Guatopo are the streams with more unique species since each one of them had three species that were not found in any of the other streams sampled. In Río Los Castillos the species were Anguillospora longissima (Sacc. & P.Syd.) Ingold, Angulospora aquatica Sv.Nilsson and Phalangispora nawawi Kuthub. (Fig. 1c), for Quebrada Guatopo the species were Clavariopsis azlanii Nawawi, Condylospora flexuosa Nawawi & Kuthub. (Fig. 1d) and Hydrometrospora symmetrica J.Gönczöl & Révay (Fig. 1e) while for Río Cabriales the species were Camposporium antennatum Harkn., Phalangispora constrica Nawawi & J.Webster, Scorpiosporium chaetocladium (Ingold) Dyko. On the other hand, Quebrada Martinera and Río Tocome had one species unique to each site: Isthmotricladia gombakiensis Nawawi (Fig. 1f) and Flabellospora verticillata Alas. (Fig. 1g). On the other hand, Río Cúpira and Quebrada Ingenio did not had any exclusive species. Finally, of 50 species found, 30 are reported for the first time for Venezuela.
Schoenlein-Crusius & Piccolo (2003) indicated that Anguillospora longissima (Sacc. & P. Syd.) Ingold, Articulospora tetracladia Ingold, Clavariopsis aquatica (De Wild.) Ingold, Lunulospora curvula Ingold, and Triscelophorus monosporus Ingold were the most common species for several countries of South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela). Even though all these species were found in some of the streams sampled, only Triscelophorus monosporus coincide as the most common. Interestingly enough, Schoenlein-Crusius & Piccolo (2003) reported Lunulospora curvula as the most common species.
Finally, comparing these results with those of Nilsson (1962) it was found that of 11 species noted by them for Venezuela, 8 were also reported in this study (Table 2). Smits and Cressa (2005) reported 21 species for the Río Los Castillos (Table 2) but this study now reports 33 species (Table 1). Similarly, Fernández & Smits (2005) reported for the Río Cabriales 15 species to which 19 from the pres-ent study must be added. Therefore, in this paper 30 species are reported for the first time for Venezuela (Table 3). This study covers just few of the many rivers located on one of the Venezuela regions (Cordillera Central, PDVSA 1992), thus it is not surprising that much more species should be reported in the future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We sincerely wish to thank the logistic support given by Habil Veroes, parkguard of the Station La Colonia in Guatopo National Park; to the Instituto Nacional de Parques (INPARQUES) for use of their facilities; to Licenciado Sergio Pacheco for his invaluable support during our field work; to the Junta Directiva and Gerente General del Club Izcaragua and to Mr. Francesco Di Criscio for allowing sampling in Los Castillos and Cúpira rivers. This study has been partially supported by the Consejo de Desarrollo Científico y Humanístico de la UCV (Grant Nos. 03-098.2003 and 03-266.2004).
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