Annotated checklist of Recent marine Bryozoa from continental Portugal

Abstract

We present here a checklist of recent marine bryozoans collected from continental Portugal, compiled from the literature,together with unplublished data. The total number of species recorded is 237, 75 from deep waters and 171 from shallow waters. The most diverse group is the order Cheilostomata with 186 species, followed by the order Ctenostomata, with 26 species, and the order Cyclostomata, with 25 species. The bryozoan species richness known currently represents between 57% and 68% of the total estimated.The 135 localities studied were grouped in five areas from North to South along the Portuguese coast, and divided into shallow water and deep water. The best known localities nowadays in Portugal are Armaçao de Pêra, with 82 species, and the Coast of Arrábida, with 71 species, while the Southwest coast is nearly unstudied. Most of the deep water species are considered endemic to the Lusitanian region, while in shallow waters most of them are widely distruibuted in the Atlantic-Mediterranean region. Both in deep and shallow waters there is a reduction of the proportion of boreal species from the north to the south, while with regards to Mediterranean species it is just upside down. Macaronesian species are present only in the south of Portugal.