Mendes, Liana de FigueiredoBraz, Natasha Freire2023-07-212023-07-212023-07-17BRAZ, Natasha Freire. Monitoramento de invertebrados bentônicos nos recifes de Maracajaú. Orientadora: Liana de Figueiredo Mendes. 2023. 33 f. Monografia (Graduação em Ecologia) – Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 2023.https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/54033Coral reefs provide the greatest known biodiversity on our planet. They offer shelter, food and substrate for various mobile and sessile organisms, and composing this diversity in reefs, marine invertebrates are found participating in important functions such as trophic chain and consolidation of structures, however, a study on the biological diversity of these marine organisms in Brazil is still scarce, understanding the dynamics of reef ecosystems and the organisms associated with such environments is of great importance, in order to predict and mitigate impacts on the abundance and distribution of species, which are fundamental for marine conservation. Therefore, this study aims to understand the variation of benthic invertebrates in Maracajaú reefs over time, in areas with and without tourism and at different times of the year. In addition, data collection was carried out through underwater visual censuses where the abundance of benthic invertebrates was sampled in the different subareas (control, community and company) and seasonally (rainy and dry). In order to verify the differences between the different subareas, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used in different seasons and the RDA analysis (redundancy analysis) to relate the abundance of mobile invertebrates with different benthos covers. The results indicated the presence of urchins in all subareas and in the different seasons of the year, a frequency of filamentous algae and sand was found in the subareas (community and company). In addition, associations between algae and sea urchins and stony corals with fire polychaetes were observed. This research brings important information for the management of the protected area, since it presents an evaluation of five years of monitoring of the Maracajaú area, with analyzes on the composition and variations of the benthos cover, abundance of invertebrates and seasonally.Invertebrados marinhosRecifesAssociações com cobertura de bentosMonitoramentoMarine invertebratesReefsAssociations with benthic coverMonitoringbachelorThesis