Rosana Rocha

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Federal University of Paraná

The mesophotic zone represents one of our planet’s largest and least explored biomes. An increasing number of studies evidence the importance of macrofouling species in marine ecosystems, but information on these communities and the factors influencing their structures at mesophotic depths remain poor. This lack of understanding limits our ability...

Microcosmus squamiger, an ascidian with high invasion potential, is recorded for the first time in the Brazilian western Atlantic, between Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo. The species was found near ports and marinas, and its introduction may have been favoured by intense nautical activity and climatic events such as La Niña. Coexistence with Mic...

Biological invasions are one of the major threats to biodiversity and good quality of life, resulting from the translocation of species by human action. There are more than 500 alien species currently invading ecosystems in Brazil, particularly plants and fishes, while little is known about invasive microorganisms. Although invasive alien species a...

Increasing habitat modification and species loss demand consistent efforts to describe and understand biodiversity patterns. The BIOTA/FAPESP Program was created in this context and it has been a successful initiative to promote studies on biodiversity and conservation in Brazil. The BIOTA/Araçá is an interdisciplinary project that provided a detai...

The Tunicata, despite the relatively low species diversity among the invertebrates, has always received attention not only due to their ecological importance, especially in fouling communities, but also for several species that are studied as models for genetics and the evolution of development, as well as being a prolific source of natural product...

Aim: Understanding the factors determining marine community variations is important for biogeography and conservation. Beta diversity is a metric for mapping species composition variations between communities and regionalizing biota. Ecoregions are commonly used for regionalization, but their empirical testing has been limited. Our aim is to map ma...

Aim Knowledge gaps and sampling bias can lead to underestimations of species richness and distortions in the known distribution of species. The goal of this study is to identify potential gaps and biases in marine organisms sampling at the Western Atlantic Ocean, determine their causes and assess its effect on biodiversity metrics. We tested the po...

This dataset summarizes the research on the impacts of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) documented in Brazil from 1981 to 2022 and was used to subsidize the Brazilian Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Impacts of non-native plants and animals, but not microorganisms and fungi, on terrestrial and aquatic (freshwater and marine) environment...

Panorama nacional sobre espécies exóticas invasoras, com 6 capítulos sobre conceitos, status e tendências, impactos, vetores de mudança, manejo e alternativas de gestão. Trabalho desenvolvido por 73 autores ao longo de 3 anos de trabalho.

Data collection by citizen scientists is emerging as an important practice for biodiversity detection, mapping, and compilation of big data in open online platforms such as iNaturalist, acting as a source of biodiversity discovery. However, the validation of species identification is a central issue for the scientific use of these data. Here we com...

A coral community was examined on a semi-submersible platform that was moored at the leeward side of Curaçao, in the southern Caribbean, from August 2016 until August 2017. This community included several non-native or cryptogenic species. Among them were two scleractinian corals (Tubastraea coccinea and T. tagusensis) and two octocorals (Chromonep...

Non-indigenous species tend to colonize aquaculture installations, especially when they are near international ports. In addition to the local environmental hazard that colonizing non-indigenous species pose, they can also take advantage of local transport opportunities to spread elsewhere. In this study, we examined the risk of the spread of eight...

Compound styelid ascidians are distributed in all marine environments and usually exhibit high morphological plasticity and complexity. In particular, Botrylloides, Botryllus, and Symplegma species show high morphological variations leading to confusion in traditional taxonomy assignments and to ambiguity in species delineation. Fewer than 20 speci...

Invasive, fouling species increase management costs and reduce mussel growth, which jeopardizes mariculture. We studied the distribution of eight invasive species in Santa Catarina, the leading mussel producer in Brazil. Our goals were to determine their spatial distribution and prevalence on farm structures (buoys, long lines, and mussel socks), a...

Early naturalists suggested that predation intensity increases toward the tropics, affecting fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes by latitude, but empirical support is still limited. Several studies have measured consumption rates across latitude at large scales, with variable results. Moreover, how predation affects prey community com...

Early naturalists suggested that predation intensity increases toward the tropics, affecting fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes by latitude, but empirical support is still limited. Several studies have measured consumption rates across latitude at large scales, with variable results. Moreover, how predation affects prey community com...

Early naturalists suggested that predation intensity increases toward the tropics, affecting fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes by latitude, but empirical support is still limited. Several studies have measured consumption rates across latitude at large scales, with variable results. Moreover, how predation affects prey community com...

Early naturalists suggested that predation intensity increases toward the tropics, affecting fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes by latitude, but empirical support is still limited. Several studies have measured consumption rates across latitude at large scales, with variable results. Moreover, how predation affects prey community com...

Autonomous reef monitoring structures (ARMS) have been proposed as a standardized, passive, nondestructive sampling tool. This study assessed the ability of ARMS to capture the cryptic species diversity of two coral reefs by recording species richness and taxonomic representativeness using conventional taxonomy. The capacity of ARMS, as artificial...

(Received 19 January 2021; revised 27 September 2021; accepted 27 September 2021) Diplosoma listerianum has been re-described with more than 40 currently invalid names, but recent data suggests that some of those names may be valid. At least four distinct clades were recently revealed by molecular analysis using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Yet, very...

The commercial mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis is invasive in the Southern Hemisphere having a large impact on rocky shore communities. It recently appeared in the state of Santa Catarina (SC) which is the most important shellfish aquacultural region in Brazil. Whether this introduction was intentional or accidental is unclear. We used single nucl...

The routine use of DNA sequencing techniques and phylogenetic analysis has resulted in the discovery of many cryptic species, especially in the oceans. The common, globally introduced species Styela canopus is suspected to be a complex of cryptic species because of its widespread distribution and variable external morphology. We tested this possibi...

Two new species of the genus Styela are described, with very rare characteristics in this genus: both are shallow-water and tropical, with more than two gonads in each side of the body. Styela panamensis sp. nov. is described from specimens collected in Bocas del Toro, Atlantic coast of Panama, and Styela multicarpa sp. nov. from specimens collecte...

https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cc8a8MvAtqOZ5 (ONLINE FREE DOWNLOAD LINK FOR 50 DAYS, until 10/04/2021) Ascidians are recognized as major invaders on a global scale, found from the poles to the tropics and from shallow to deep sea waters with approximately 3000 known described species worldwide. However, to date only a few opportunistic studies fo...

Anthropogenic agents of ocean change such as biological invasions, overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and ocean acidification and warming are known to have a dramatic impact on marine ecosystems worldwide. They are also intrinsically connected. In Western Australia, a “hot-plate” settlement panel system aimed at investigating the effect of...

Nonindigenous species are increasingly transported around the world through multiple pathways by a diversity of vectors. Invasive species are a subset of those that are introduced into the receptor community, where they establish and increase their population to a size where they impact the native system. Marine invasive species can therefore inter...

Aim: We evaluated whether patterns of species diversity (α, β and γ) of rocky shore assemblages followed latitudinal gradients (i.e. LDGs) along the South American coasts, and tested hypotheses related to potential processes sustaining or disrupting the expected LDG pattern at various spatial scales. Location: Coasts of South America. Taxon: Macroa...

Invasive species reduce the productivity of shellfish mariculture worldwide. Brown mussel culture harvests were examined for invasive species in the state of Santa Catarina – the most important region for shellfish mariculture in Brazil. For the first time, we describe here the impact of the three most abundant invasive species on harvested Perna p...

Twenty-two samples of Leptoclinides Bjerkan, 1905 collected along the Brazilian coast between 1998 and 2017 were examined. Herein we describe two new species (Leptoclinides coronatus sp. nov. and Leptoclinides lotufoi sp. nov.). We also extend the distribution of L. latus F. Monniot, 1983 and report that, for the first time, L. torosus F. Monniot,...

Botryllids are colonial styelid ascidians for which morphological characters distinguishing genera and species are often difficult to identify and frequently ambiguous. Botrylloides perspicuus, Botrylloides giganteus, and Botrylloides pizoni have similar colony and zooid appearances and over recent years have been found in dispersed localities arou...

Description of the diversity of ascidians in the Ecuadorian coast, from Bahía de Caráquez to Santa Clara Island (El Oro)

The ascidians are one of the most diverse taxonomic groups in the reefs of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Actually, 76 species have been registered in 5 studies only in Gulf of México. However, the patterns of distribution and diversity of species in these regions have not been described, using standardized methodologies that allow postu...

Polysyncraton Nott, 1892 is the second largest genus of didemnid ascidians; it has a wide distribution ranging from temperate to tropical waters. Seventy-one specimens of Polysyncraton from eight museum collections and recently collected samples were analyzed. This resulted in the description of three new species (P. cabofriense Oliveira & Rocha sp...

This study is the first inventory of ascidians from shallow waters (0–25 m) of coastal and reef habitats in the southern Gulf of Mexico where ascidian diversity is poorly known. Sampled environments in 14 locations (38 sites) with 134 samples collected from 2015 to 2017 included coral reefs, coastal lagoons, mangroves, seagrass, ports, and artifici...

Recent efforts have been taken to survey and describe the ascidian fauna of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Panama; however, the genus Pyura still remains poorly known. Sampling events have been occurring since 2003. In this research, we describe two new species from the Atlantic coast of Panama: P. longispina sp. nov., P. lopezlegentilae sp. no...

The genus Pyura is widely distributed with 99 valid species. Since 1961, Pyura vittata (Stimpson, 1852) has been reported to the Southwest Atlantic but new collections and a revision of the morphological characters of samples deposited in scientific collections revealed that samples had been confused with two other species: Pyura gangelion (Savigny...

Non-native ascidians are becoming a global problem and several species have recently been used as models for studying invasion success in the marine realm. Despite a limited dispersal due to their short-lived larvae, they are often found in coastal habitats as a result of human activities. As one of the warmest waterways in the world characterized...

Hydroid assemblage's responses to organic contamination were evaluated using sedimentary sterols as explanatory variables. At seven coral reef sites in the Havana west coast, hydroids were collected along three 10 m × 1 m, 10 m deep transects. Five sterols were analysed, i.e., coprostanol, an indicator of faecal contamination , and cholestanol, cho...

The opportunistic feeder Pterois volitans is a voracious invader, causing large impacts in marine food-webs. We have used a Ecopath-with-Ecosim model to hypothesize an invasion by lionfish and to predict the likely impact of this potential generalist mesopredator in a subtropical food-web model. With thirty-three functional groups, the initial Ecop...

Numerous colonies of Eudistoma amanitum sp. nov. have been collected in Caribbean waters. The colonies resemble the groups of mushrooms from the Amanita genus and there are different color morphs. The discussion includes comparison with other species with similar shape.

Fouling assemblages from a Brazilian subtropical rocky coast.

Aim Many species of ascidians are invasive and can cause both ecological and economic losses. Here, we describe risk assessment for nineteen ascidian species and predict coastal regions that are more vulnerable to arrival and expansion. Location Global. Methods We used ensemble niche modelling with three algorithms (Random Forest, Support Vector...

Predicting global ascidian invasions - Lins - 2018 - Diversity and Distributions - Wiley 10.1111/ddi.12711

Physiological tolerance is a trait that may increase the invasion potential of transported species. A review of current literature, in which most species tested were from temperate or subtropical regions, shows that invasive ascidians can indeed tolerate a large range of salinities and temperatures. In this study, we used 4 tropical ascidians from...

Secondary transport of introduced species can be important in dispersing potentially invasive species, and vectors of transport are often the fouled hulls of small fishing and recreational boats. Likelihood of transport depends on many factors, including resistance of the species to drag forces due to boat velocity and resistance to desiccation. To...

Background Correctly identifying organisms is key to most biological research, and is especially critical in areas of biodiversity and conservation. Yet it remains one of the greatest challenges when studying all but the few well-established model systems. The challenge is in part due to the fact that most species have yet to be described, vanishin...

In August 2014, we performed Rapid Assessment Surveys (RAS) in seven marinas along circa 70 km of the coastline of Ilha Grande Bay (IGB), southeastern Brazil to evaluate diversity in the Ascidiacea and of introduced species. This region is very important for marine biodiversity and includes many protected areas. However, urbanization, tourism and e...

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009;...