Rapid Northward Spread of a Zooxanthellate Coral Enhanced by Artificial Structures and Sea Warming in the Western Mediterranean

Serrano, Eduard; Coma, Rafael; Ribes, Marta; Weitzmann, Boris; García, María José López; Ballesteros, Enric

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052739

Cited by 49 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…One way or the other, shipping can be considered a plausible vector for benthic animals to enter new territories (Farrapeira et al, 2011;Zenetos et al, 2012), which may also be the case for O. crispata in the Mediterranean Sea. Its range expansion may be a matter of time, as recently observed for other stony corals in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean (Clemente et al, 2010;López-González et al, 2010;Ocaña et al, 2011;Serrano et al, 2013).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 62%

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First record of the Central Indo-Pacific reef coral Oulastrea crispata in the Mediterranean Sea

Hoeksema¹,

Vicente²

2014

Medit. Mar. Sci.

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A live colony of a non-indigenous zooxanthellate scleractinian coral was found in shallow water on the west coast of Corsica, western Mediterranean. Its diameter of 6 cm suggests that it has already survived for some years. It was identified as Oulastrea crispata, a species native on near-shore coral reefs in the central Indo-Pacific with a high tolerance for low water temperatures at high latitudes. Based on its morphology it can be distinguished from other zooxanthellate colonial scleractinians in the Mediterranean. O. crispata has a reputation of being a successful colonizer because it is able to settle on a wide variety of substrata and because it utilizes various reproductive strategies as simultaneous hermaphrodite and producer of asexually derived planulae. Owing to its original distribution range in temperate and subtropical waters, it is likely that it will be able to find a suitable temperature regime in the Mediterranean for further range expansion.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 62%

“…5Α), where it may have arrived by shipping although its original range is unknown (Zibrowius, 1974). During the last decades it has spread throughout the Mediterranean (Fine et al, 2001;Shenkar et al, 2006;Sartoretto et al, 2008;Bitar & Zibrowius, 1997;Serrano et al, 2013). Oculina cf.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

First record of the Central Indo-Pacific reef coral Oulastrea crispata in the Mediterranean Sea

Hoeksema¹,

Vicente²

2014

Medit. Mar. Sci.

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“…The efficiency of rafting dispersal depends on the availability and the persistence of floating substrata in the oceans. Already established populations may disperse regionally with the help of marine litter, as was observed by Whitehead et al (2011) for lepadid barnacles in South Africa, by Serrano et al (2013) for a Mediterranean population of the coral Oculina patagonica and also by Davidson (2012) for the isopod Sphaeroma quoianum, which "manufactures" its own raft by causing fragmentation of Styrofoam/polystyrene dock floats.…”

Section: Floating Litter As Dispersal Vectormentioning

confidence: 95%

Marine Litter as Habitat and Dispersal Vector

Kiessling

Gutow

Thiel

2015

Marine Anthropogenic Litter

138

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Floating anthropogenic litter provides habitat for a diverse community of marine organisms. A total of 387 taxa, including pro-and eukaryotic microorganisms, seaweeds and invertebrates, have been found rafting on floating litter in all major oceanic regions. Among the invertebrates, species of bryozoans, crustaceans, molluscs and cnidarians are most frequently reported as rafters on marine litter. Micro-organisms are also ubiquitous on marine litter although the composition of the microbial community seems to depend on specific substratum characteristics such as the polymer type of floating plastic items. Sessile suspension feeders are particularly well-adapted to the limited autochthonous food resources on artificial floating substrata and an extended planktonic larval development seems to facilitate colonization of floating litter at sea. Properties of floating litter, such as size and surface rugosity, are crucial for colonization by marine organisms and the subsequent succession of the rafting community. The rafters themselves affect substratum characteristics such as floating stability, buoyancy, and degradation. Under the influence of currents and winds marine litter can transport associated organisms over extensive distances. Because of the great persistence (especially of plastics) and the vast quantities of litter in the world's oceans, rafting dispersal has become more prevalent in the marine environment, potentially facilitating the spread of invasive species. IntroductionLitter in the marine environment poses a hazard for a great variety of animals. Various species of marine vertebrates including fish, seabirds, turtles and marine mammals become easily entangled in floating marine litter, resulting in reduced mobility, strangulation and drowning (Derraik 2002;Kühn et al. 2015). Additionally, ingested litter can damage or block intestines, thereby affecting nutrition with often lethal effects (reviewed by Derraik 2002;Kühn et al. 2015). On the seafloor, marine litter can smother the substratum and thus cause hypoxia in benthic organisms (Moore 2008;Gregory 2009). In addition to these immediate hazardous effects on marine biota, marine litter has been suggested to facilitate the spread of non-indigenous species (Lewis et al. 2005). Biological invasions are considered a major threat to coastal ecosystems (Molnar et al. 2008).Like any other submerged substrata, marine litter provides a habitat for organisms that are able to settle and persist on artificial surfaces. Once colonized by marine biota, litter items floating at the sea surface can facilitate dispersal of the associated rafters at different spatial scales. Previous studies have reported over 1200 taxa that are associated with natural and anthropogenic flotsam (Thiel and Gutow 2005a) and the extreme localities that rafting organisms can reach when transported over large distances by currents and wind (Barnes and Fraser 2003; Barnes and Milner 2005). While floating macroalgae, wood and volcanic pumice have been part of the natural flots...

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“…The scleractinian coral O. patagonica is a putative alien species in the Mediterranean Sea where it was observed for the first time in 1966, on the Ligurian coast of Italy (Zibrowius, 1974). In the Spanish coast, it was first recorded in the Alicante Harbour in 1973 (Zibrowius and Ramos, 1983;Zibrowius 1992), and nowadays it is widely spread from Algeciras to Catalonia and the Balearic Islands (Zibrowius and Ramos, 1983;Ramos, 1985;Ballesteros, 1998;Izquierdo et al, 2007;Coma et al, 2011;Serrano et al, 2012Serrano et al, , 2013RubioPortillo et al, 2014). Bleaching of O. patagonica has been studied extensively, although there is a considerable controversy on the nature of its principal cause, due to the different existing hypothesis about whether microorganisms have a role or not in the bleaching process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New insights into Oculina patagonica coral diseases and their associated Vibrio spp. communities

et al. 2014

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Bleaching of Oculina patagonica has been extensively studied in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, although no studies have been carried out in the Western basin. In 1996 Vibrio mediterranei was reported as the causative agent of bleaching in O. patagonica but it has not been related to bleached or healthy corals since 2003, suggesting that it was no longer involved in bleaching of O. patagonica. In an attempt to clarify the relationship between Vibrio spp., seawater temperature and coral diseases, as well as to investigate the putative differences between Eastern and Western Mediterranean basins, we have analysed the seasonal patterns of the culturable Vibrio spp. assemblages associated with healthy and diseased O. patagonica colonies. Two sampling points located in the Spanish Mediterranean coast were chosen for this study: Alicante Harbour and the Marine Reserve of Tabarca. A complex and dynamic assemblage of Vibrio spp. was present in O. patagonica along the whole year and under different environmental conditions and coral health status. While some Vibrio spp. were detected all year around in corals, the known pathogens V. mediteranei and V. coralliilyticus were only present in diseased specimens. The pathogenic potential of these bacteria was studied by experimental infection under laboratory conditions. Both vibrios caused diseased signs from 24 1C, being higher and faster at 28 1C. Unexpectedly, the co-inoculation of these two Vibrio species seemed to have a synergistic pathogenic effect over O. patagonica, as disease signs were readily observed at temperatures at which bleaching is not normally observed.

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Rapid Northward Spread of a Zooxanthellate Coral Enhanced by Artificial Structures and Sea Warming in the Western Mediterranean

Cited by 49 publications

References 104 publications

First record of the Central Indo-Pacific reef coral Oulastrea crispata in the Mediterranean Sea

First record of the Central Indo-Pacific reef coral Oulastrea crispata in the Mediterranean Sea

Marine Litter as Habitat and Dispersal Vector

New insights into Oculina patagonica coral diseases and their associated Vibrio spp. communities

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