The invasive brown seaweed Rugulopteryx okamurae (Dictyotales, Ochrophyta) continues to expand: first record in Italy
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Bellissimo, Giancarlo; Altamirano, María; Román Muñoz, Antonio; Rosa Álamos, Julio Carlos De La; Hang Hung, Tin; Rizzuto, Gabriele; Vizzini, Salvatrice; Tomasello, AgostinoEditorial
INVASIVES NET
Materia
Distribution modelling Favorability Fishing
Fecha
2024-05-23Referencia bibliográfica
Bellissimo, G. et. al. BioInvasions Records (2024) Volume 13, Issue 2: 385–401. [https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2024.13.2.08]
Patrocinador
FEDERJA-006 (FEDER-Junta de Andalucía); TED2021-130080B-I00 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, NextGenerationEU); RETURN Extended Partnership that funded from the Next-Generation EU (National Recovery and Resilience Plan – NRRP, Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.3 – D.D. 1243 2/8/2022, PE0000005); 2016-CONTAB-0007- Self-financingResumen
The brown seaweed Rugulopteryx okamurae (Dictyotales, Ochrophyta), native to
the Pacific Ocean and widely distributed in Asia, has been recently recognized as
an emblematic case of biological invasion by marine macroalgae in European waters.
Since 2015 and from the Strait of Gibraltar, R. okamurae has rapidly spread towards
Atlantic and Mediterranean coastal areas exhibiting an invasive behaviour with
significant ecological and socio-economic impacts. Here, we report the first
morphologically and genetically confirmed observation of this species in Italy,
along the north-western coast of Sicily (Gulf of Palermo). Specimens were found as
drifted material and as an established population on Posidonia oceanica, representing
its new eastern distribution limit in the Mediterranean Sea, as the species was
previously established in Marseilles (France). Furthermore, we performed a favorability
distribution model with the current introduced distribution of the species for the
Mediterranean, which shows most of the western Mediterranean, including the
Balearic archipelago, Corsica and Sardinia, central Mediterranean, including Sicily,
and the northern coast of Africa together with eastern Mediterranean basin, as
highly favorable for R. okamurae. The most probable vectors for this introduction
are sea currents and maritime traffic, including fishing activities. This hypothesis was
supported by some of the ranked variables in the favorability model, i.e., current
velocity, and the proximity of the introduced population to fishing ports. These
results are a warning that the species can cover large sea distances via sea currents,
thus also threatening the ecosystems and marine resources of the central and eastern
Mediterranean Sea, as these areas are forecasted to be highly favorable regions for
the species. We suggest coordinated actions at the European level with stakeholders
in the fishing sector regarding prevention, both because it is a highly affected sector
and because it potentially has a very important role in the dispersion of the species.