The spaghetti bryozoan Amathia verticillata, formerly known as Zoobotryon verticillatum, was first described in 1822 from Naples, Italy, although this species was already present in 1807 at Cadiz, ...Spain. This ctenostome has long been considered a native species in the Mediterranean Sea but it has recently been suggested to be of Caribbean origin. It is most likely to have been introduced by vessels as hull fouling. This pseudo-indigenous species, i.e. a non-indigenous species (NIS) having been perceived to be native, has been found in several marinas and harbours within the Mediterranean Sea. In November 2014, this bryozoan species was abundant in the La Grande Motte marina on the south coast of France. Several thousand colonies were estimated to be present within this marina attached to the floating pontoon units that supported a floating boardwalk. Of the berthed craft examined, 31% were fouled with this species, and it was occasionally a prominent fouling species. Several macroinvertebrate species were associated with A. verticillata colonies, including some NIS. Paracerceis sculpta, Paranthura japonica and Caprella scaura, that are recorded for the first time from the Mediterranean coast of France. A. verticillata might support their transfer elsewhere by providing a habitat and substrate when attached to vessel hulls.Original Abstract: El briozoo espagueti Amathia verticillata, anteriormente conocido como Zoobotryon verticillatum, fue descrito por primera vez en 1822 en Napoles, Italia, aunque esta especie ya estaba presente en 1807 en Cadiz, Espana. Este ctenostomado ha sido considerado por mucho tiempo como una especie nativa del Mar Mediterraneo, pero se ha sugerido recientemente que es originario del Caribe. Es probable que haya sido introducido incrustado en los cascos de los barcos. Esta especie pseudoindigena, es decir, una especie introducida que ha sido percibida como nativa, se ha encontrado en varios puertos comerciales y deportivos del Mar Mediterraneo. En noviembre de 2014, esta especie de briozoo era abundante en el puerto deportivo de La Grande Motte en la costa sur de Francia. Se estimaron varios miles de colonias presentes en este puerto, adheridas a las unidades de pontones flotantes que sostienen el paseo maritimo flotante. El treinta y uno por ciento de los barcos atracados, examinados en el puerto deportivo, estaban incrustados con esta especie, cuyo aspecto algunas veces fue una sola incrustacion prominente. Varias especies de macroinvertebrados se asociaron con las colonias del A. verticillata, incluyendo algunas especies introducidas que se registran por primera vez en la costa Mediterranea de Francia: Paracerceis sculpta, Paranthura japonica y Caprella scaura. Este briozoo podria ayudar a la transferencia de diferentes macroinvertebrados a otros lugares, pues proporciona un habitat y un substrato cuando esta adherido a los cascos de los barcos.
The Mediterranean Sea is home to over 2/3 of the world's charter boat traffic and hosts an estimated 1.5 million recreational boats. Studies elsewhere have demonstrated marinas as important hubs for ...the stepping-stone transfer of non-indigenous species (NIS), but these unique anthropogenic, and typically artificial habitats have largely gone overlooked in the Mediterranean as sources of NIS hot-spots. From April 2015 to November 2016, 34 marinas were sampled across the following Mediterranean countries: Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus to investigate the NIS presence and richness in the specialized hard substrate material of these marina habitats. All macroinvertebrate taxa were collected and identified. Additionally, fouling samples were collected from approximately 600 boat-hulls from 25 of these marinas to determine if boats host diverse NIS not present in the marina. Here, we present data revealing that Mediterranean marinas indeed act as major hubs for the transfer of marine NIS, and we also provide evidence that recreational boats act as effective vectors of spread. From this wide-ranging geographical study, we report here numerous new NIS records at the basin, subregional, country and locality level. At the basin level, we report three NIS new to the Mediterranean Sea (
,
,
aff.
), and the re-appearance of two NIS previously known but currently considered extinct in the Mediterranean (
). We also compellingly update the distributions of many NIS in the Mediterranean Sea showing some recent spreading; we provide details for 11 new subregional records for NIS (
,
and
now present in the Western Mediterranean;
,
,
,
and
now present in the Central Mediterranean, and
,
and
in the Eastern Mediterranean). We also report 51 new NIS country records from recreational marinas: 12 for Malta, 10 for Cyprus, nine for Greece, six for Spain and France, five for Turkey and three for Italy, representing 32 species. Finally, we report 20 new NIS records (representing 17 species) found on recreational boat-hulls (mobile habitats), not yet found in the same marina, or in most cases, even the country. For each new NIS record, their native origin and global and Mediterranean distributions are provided, along with details of the new record. Additionally, taxonomic characters used for identification and photos of the specimens are also provided. These new NIS records should now be added to the relevant NIS databases compiled by several entities. Records of uncertain identity are also discussed, to assess the probability of valid non-indigenous status.
Baseline port monitoring for fouling communities is an essential tool to assess non-indigenous species (NIS) introduction and spread, but a standardized and coordinated method among Mediterranean and ...European countries has not yet been adopted. In this context, it is important to test monitoring protocols that allow for the collection of standardized and directly comparable data, replicated across time and space. Here, for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, we tested a standardized protocol developed by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and used now in several countries. The 3-year monitoring survey (2018–2020) was conducted in the Gulf of La Spezia (Ligurian Sea, Italy), with the deployment of a total of 50 PVC panels per year in five different sites (a commercial harbor, three marinas and a site in the proximity of a shellfish farm). A total of 79 taxa were identified, including 11 NIS, ranging from zero to seven NIS for each panel. In comparison with previous surveys, new NIS arrivals were observed in the Gulf of La Spezia:
Botrylloides
cf.
niger
,
Branchiomma
sp.,
Branchiomma luctuosum
,
Paraleucilla magna
, and
Watersipora arcuata
. At the end of the 3-year monitoring, mean richness? and percent cover of NIS were measured, and both measures differed across the monitoring sites, with higher values in two marinas and in the commercial harbor. Among years, richness of NIS was relatively stable at each monitoring site. The structure of the fouling was influenced more by native and cryptogenic species than by NIS. Moreover, among the monitoring sites, the density of artificial structures was not a reliable predictor or proxy for local NIS abundance. This first application of the SERC method in the Mediterranean Sea, demonstrates both pros and cons, including the detection of new NIS reported here. Further direct comparisons with other NIS monitoring tools are recommended, and additional tests to assess its effectiveness in this biogeographical area are encouraged. A broader application of this and other standard methods across temporal and spatial scales in the Mediterranean basin should be implemented, providing critical data needed to assess changes in the structure of fouling communities.
The role of native predators in controlling or facilitating non-indigenous species (NIS) growing in a fouling assemblage was investigated with a 70-day caging experiment in a marina inside the Gulf ...of La Spezia (Italy). Submerged PVC panels were divided into three experimental treatment levels: “control panels”, “open-caged panels” and “caged panels”, to assess the predation effect on the fouling assemblages growing on the panels. Predation effect was observed for two investigated variables. The Shannon Index was significantly higher in caged panels in comparison with controls, while an opposite trend was observed for the coverage area of native species. When testing single NIS abundance, both facilitation and limitation of individual NIS settlement has been observed. Mean coverage of the sabellid Branchiomma luctuosum was significantly higher in caged than in uncaged or open-caged panels, while the ascidian Styela plicata was prevalent in open-caged panels. In general, a predation effect was observed when considering the whole fouling assemblage, including different trends in NIS coverage among treatment levels. The results of this first attempt performed in the Mediterranean Sea encourage further experiments to investigate the biotic resistance provided by native predators against NIS.
In the framework of a wider systematic survey aimed at studying non-indigenous species in Italian harbours and marinas, the ascophoran bryozoan Celleporaria brunnea was detected for the first time in ...the western Mediterranean Sea. The species is presumably native to the Pacific coasts of North America and is distributed from British Columbia to the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador). In the Mediterranean Sea, C. brunnea was first recorded in 2004 in the inner part of Izmir Bay near Alsancak harbour (Turkey) and later reported along the Lebanese coasts. The species was recently detected in Cascais marina in Portugal and in the Arcachon Basin (France), documenting the first records in the eastern Atlantic. The finding in the Italian harbours of La Spezia (Liguria), Olbia (Sardinia) and Lampedusa (off Sicily) marks its western and northernmost occurrence within the Mediterranean basin. Pathways of introduction into the western Mediterranean Sea are discussed, concluding that hull fouling is the most likely vector. The species may be expected to appear soon in other harbours of the Mediterranean basin.Original Abstract: En el marco de un estudio sistematico mas amplio destinado a investigar las especies introducidas en los puertos comerciales y deportivos italianos, el briozoo ascophoro Celleporaria brunnea se detecto por primera vez en el Mediterraneo occidental. La especie es probablemente originaria de la costa pacifica de America del Norte y se distribuye desde la Columbia Britanica hasta las Islas Galapagos (Ecuador). En el mar Mediterraneo, C. brunnea se registro por primera vez en 2004 en la parte interior de la bahia de Izmir, cerca del puerto de Alsancak (Turquia), y mas tarde se reporto a lo largo de las costas libanesas. La especie se registro recientemente en el puerto deportivo de Cascais en Portugal y en la cuenca de Arcachon (Francia), que documenta los primeros registros en el Atlantico oriental. El hallazgo en los puertos italianos de La Spezia (Liguria), Olbia (Cerdena) y Lampedusa (Sicilia) marca su presencia en la cuenca occidental y septentrional mediterranea. Se discuten las vias de introduccion en el mar Mediterraneo occidental, llegando a la conclusion que el vector mas probable es el incrustamiento en el casco de los barcos. Puede esperarse que la especie aparezca pronto en otros puertos de la cuenca mediterranea.
Background In the marine environment, shipping is globally acknowledged as the major vector of introduction of organisms outside their native range. We surveyed harbours and marinas in the Western ...Mediterranean Sea for occurrence of non-indigenous species. Results More than 200 specimens of the Japanese amphipod Grandidierella japonica were collected in 2013 from the docks of the marina of Viareggio (Tuscany, Tyrrhenian Sea). This is the first record of this species for the Mediterranean Sea. Conclusions G. japonica was previously introduced elsewhere by oyster trade and shipping; in the case of Viareggio, where no aquaculture facilities or international shipping occur, recreational boating is the only likely vector of introduction. In Europe, G. japonica is currently confined by a few localities, mainly estuaries, enclosed bays and brackish water areas, but its successful history of invasion in the Pacific coasts of North America suggests that a further spread can be expected in the Mediterranean Sea as well.
The synergistic effects of biological invasions have long been considered significant causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. Therefore, early detection monitoring is crucial in mitigating ...nonindigenous species (NIS) threats. In the marine environment, settlement plates were used as monitoring devices in ports, but this method was mainly applied to assess the sessile benthic community and is less efficient in collecting the mobile biota and accessing its diversity. Moreover, as the potential expansion of NIS to the surrounding coastal environment is still poorly understood, a pilot study was conducted focusing on two aspects: (i) improving the feasibility of the settling method under different environmental contexts and (ii) enhancing the capacity of the developed prototypes to collect more representative samples (i.e., sessile and mobile biota). Three different prototypes were designed: a box prototype consisting of PVC plates encapsulated by a plastic bottle, a CD prototype with CDs surrounded by a net, and a PVC prototype with uncovered PVC plates. The prototypes were deployed inside a marina and in an outside area on Madeira Island, Portugal. Results indicate that the PVC prototype was the most efficient regarding monitoring the sessile community, whereas the box prototype showed the highest abundance of the mobile fauna. The location influenced both the sessile community composition and the number of mobile taxa. Our findings suggest combining features from prototypes to encompass the whole benthic community better.
The role of commercial harbours as sink and source habitats for non-indigenous species (NIS) and the role of recreational boating for their secondary spread were investigated by analysing the fouling ...community of five Italian harbours and five marinas in the western Mediterranean Sea. It was first hypothesised that NIS assemblages in the recreational marinas were subsets of those occurring in commercial harbours. However, the data did not consistently support this hypothesis: the NIS pools of some marinas significantly diverged from harbours even belonging to the same coastal stretches, including NIS occurring only in marinas. This study confirms harbours as hotspots for marine NIS, but also reveals that numbers of NIS in some marinas is higher than expected, suggesting that recreational vessels effectively facilitate NIS spread. It is recommended that this vector of NIS introduction is taken into account in the future planning of sustainable development of maritime tourism in Europe.
The role of navigation in transporting and introducing non-indigenous species (NIS) in ports is globally acknowledged, and maritime traffic is correlated with increasing NIS introductions. On the ...other hand, different types of vessels can occur in a port (e.g., for commercial or recreational purposes) and the success of a NIS in a new area also depends on several chemical-physical and biotic conditions of the arrival port.
In this context, a study was conducted in 2020 in three marinas at Sanremo (Ligurian Sea, Italy) with the aim to assess if boat traffic influences the presence of NIS in marine fouling communities.
Samples were collected from docks and pontoons with a hand-held rigid net in the marinas of Sanremo (Porto Sole, characterized by international recreational boat traffic; and Porto Vecchio, hosting only local fishing boats), as well as in Ospedaletti, a nearly finished, abandoned and unused marina. Overall, 47 species (including 9 NIS), 45 (8 NIS) and 86 (2 NIS) were collected in Porto Sole, Porto Vecchio and Ospedaletti, respectively. Number and proportion of NIS were significantly lower in the unused marina of Ospedaletti in comparison with the other two ones, which in turn exhibited similar sessile assemblages and comparable NIS richness. The peculiarity of Ospedaletti fouling community, despite the geographical proximity and similar habitat conditions of the other marinas, highlights the role of boating traffic in facilitating NIS settlement, while the sole presence of artificial substrates is not sufficient to promote NIS introduction. This site could provide opportunities for experimenting novel NIS management measures.
•Comparison of fouling communities of two active and one inactive marinas.•A highly diverse fouling community was observed in the inactive marina.•A higher number of non-indigenous species (NIS) was observed in the active marinas.•Importance of the role of small boat traffic in NIS introduction.
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•Factors shaping non-indigenous species (NIS) richness are tested in the Mediterranean.•There is a higher trend of NIS richness going from east to west in the Mediterranean.•NIS ...richness in marinas is mainly influenced by proximity to other major vectors.•NIS similarities between marinas are more influenced by environmental factors.•The Suez Canal exerts a very strong influence for NIS in Mediterranean marinas.
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