Habitats Marinos Archipielago De Los Canarreos

Island of Youth. Archipelago de los Canarreos marine habitats.
Andrés Jiménez Castillo.

The Archipelago of Canarreos comprises the whole set of islands, keys, islets and banks located within the Gulf of Batabanó at the southwestern section of the Cuban shelf. This system is located between the 21º 25' and 22º 41' N and 80º 52' and 84º 00' W and has an area of 27 673 km2,. The Gulf of Batabanois the largest and most habitat-diverse shelf area of Cuba and the insular Caribbean. The Gulf is a shallow body (3-6 m prevailing depths) surrounded by the main island in the north, and the Canarreos Archipelago (almost 700 hundred mangrove islets and keys and the Isle of Youth) in the west, south and northeastern part. The gulf is covered by extensive seagrass beds and sandy areas as well asnumerous patch reefs; an array of islands and barrier reefs separates the gulf from the Caribbean Sea. Mangroves fringe the islands and mainland and are particularly extensive in the Zapata Swamp. All these conditions combine to provide highly diverse marine fauna and abundant populations of lobsters, seabirds, bottlenose dolphin, sea turtles, the Antillean manatee and numerous reef fish species.This is one of the most important marine and coastal wildlife areas of the country, containing 258 species of fish, 45 corals, 23 gorgonians, 137 sponges, 212 polychaetes, 108 mollusks, 63 crabs, 28 ascidians, 8 sea urchin, 5 asteroideans etc. Some emblematic species are found in the region such as the crocodile Crocodylus rhombifer) and the Antillean manatee Trichechus manatus which inhabit thewetlands and near shore areas. Some, such as the green turtle (Caretta caretta) and the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), nest in the beaches of the Canarreos Archipelago.

The reproductive strategies of the reef fishes (snappers and groupers, mainly) and the presence of nursery zones make this Archipelago an important source of larvae to downstream areas.
Three different majormangrove formations are found in the site and they comprise the greatest of the country and the largest of the insular Caribbean (mangrove trees can get 10-m tall).
The coasts are rocky and accumulative with a relief that goes from coastal plains to the wavy and sandy ones.
The distribution of the marine ecosystems along the Cuban platform near Island of Youth shows a regular pattern around animaginary line perpendicular to the shoreline (reef profile) as shown in the pictures below:
Typical Profile: Marine habitats. Place: Cayo Cantiles, canal del Rosario, (the black line shows the distribution of the zones described in the next picture)

Ecosystems profile. The different zones are described:

Some variations occur from place to place around the Archipelago; this general scheme showsthe position of each element (zone) of the platform’s profile.

A: Shallow Reef (Crest)
The crest of the main reef is generally emergent at low tide, but may be below the surface. The seaward edge of the reef crest takes the brunt of the incoming wave energy. The reef can reduce incoming wave energy by up to 97%. As waves break, water is washed across the reef crest and into the lagoon,driving lagoonal circulation.
Because of the modification of wave forces across the reef crest, the backreef is an environment of totally different physical processes, ecology and sediment characteristics. Sediments and rubble from the reef crest are dumped behind the crest, widening the backreef flat through time. Caribbean reef flats have only recently reached sea level and are narrow. There is ageneral transition from branching corals and the hydrozoan Millepora near the front of the crest to sand flats and Thalassia landward. The shallow back reef may have a shallow Porites (hard coral species) reef flat immediately behind the crest and numerous small patch reefs in a sand apron. The corals are generally well adapted to the high levels of sedimentation to which they are regularly...