Resumen de Biología de la conservación de las comunidades de gorgonias tropicales en el pacífico oriental (ecuador)
Within the benthic marine organisms zoological groups, located in the tropical waters of both of the American Continent’s coastlines, one of the groups that has the highest endemism is that of the gorgonians (Cnidaria: Alcyonacea: Octocorallia). These organisms represent an important challenge from both taxonomic and phylogenetic viewpoints. Although geographic areas, such as the Ecuadorian littoral, are famous for their global biodiversity, it is important to emphasise that there is a great lack of information about these areas’ invertebrate species inhabitants. For this reason, it has becomed essential to work towards completing information containing different aspects such as diversity, evolution, reproductive biology, ecology and possible diseases. With this in mind, the principal goal of the present PhD thesis was to improve the knowledge of the gorgonian communities (Gorgoniidae) through diverse perspectives and multidisciplinary methodologies (morphology, morphometry, histology and molecular systematics) in the unexplored area of continental Ecuador, located within the context of the Eastern Pacific Ocean eco-‐regions. According to our results, means of faunistic and taxonomic studies of the three genera, Eugorgia, Leptogorgia and Pacifigorgia (Gorgoniidae) present in the Ecuadorian littoral, fourteen species have been identified, constituting to seven of them being new records for Ecuador. Furthermore, through the use of classical morphological taxonomy and integrative taxonomy framework with the incorporation of morphometric and molecular characters, in this study have been described four new species, E. ahorcadensis, L. mariarosae, L. manabiensis and P. machalilla. This achievement has verified the usefulness of searching for new characters in the definition and identification of the studied species in question.
