Abstract

Settlement among native and invasive marine organisms in fouling communities was observed at various time intervals in the San Francisco Bay. Many of these well-known, globally invasive organisms grow rapidly and often outcompete or overgrow natives. Settlement plates were placed at three different protected areas within the Bay (Richmond Marina Bay Yacht Club (1), Berkeley Marina (2), and Fort Baker (3)) and scored once a week for 5 weeks. The two larger East Bay sites (1 and 2) showed considerably greater species diversity and abundance in comparison to the smaller site near the mouth of the Bay (site 3). Furthermore, at the Easy Bay sites, algal cover gradually decreased as animal diversity and abundance progressively increased. Species including Didemnum sp., Balanus glandula, Watersipora subtorquata, white encrusting bryozoan, and white branching bryozoan showed significant settlement differences in initial recruitment density on empty plates deployed in the 1st versus the 3rd week. Recruitment on the plates appeared to show a priority effect where the earliest settlers (colonial tunicates and Bugula neritina) were consistently the most abundant species present each subsequent week. Measuring the growth and abundance of the invasive organisms is important to study because they are altering the habitats and opportunities for native organisms to persist.

Mentor

Sarah Cohen

Lab site

Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies (RTC)

Share

COinS
 

URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/star/38

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.