Habitat formed by the invasive macroalga Caulerpa filiformis (Suhr) Hering (Caulerpales, Chlorophyta) alters benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in Peru

Abstract

The green macroalga Caulerpa liformis has been spreading on shallow soft sediment habitats along the Peruvian coast, colonizing previously unvegetated sediments to create monospeci c meadows. We examined the nature of the impact of C. liformis meadows on the density, taxonomic richness and assemblage structure of epifaunal and infaunal benthic macroinvertebrates. Speci cally, we tested whether the spread of C. liformis has resulted in different macroinvertebrate assemblages than those formed by the dominant native macroalgae (i.e., Rhodymenia spp.) and unvegetated sediments. Surveys were undertaken in two bays in each of two locations, in central and southern Peru, during winter 2017 and summer 2018. In general, our results show that macroinvertebrate assemblages were similar across all three habitats, although there were some differences, related to location and season, but with no clear patterns observed. Taxonomic richness and density was generally higher in the vegetated habitats than the unvegetated habitat, and where there were differences between the two vegetated habitats there was no consistent pattern of which habitat supported the highest richness or density. Given invading C. liformis is primarily colonizing unvegetated habitats it would appear that this species is creating a new niche which supports similar assemblages, but higher taxonomic richness and density than unvegetated habitats. While our study suggests that C. liformis is having a limited ecological impact we recommend that actions be put in place to limit the spread of this invasive species at the same time as increasing monitoring of the ecological impacts of this species as lags in the ecological impacts of invasive species are common.

Environmental impact on marginal coastal benthic communities within the Jeju Island, South Korea temperate transition zone

“…This settlement of subtropical and tropical species in temperate ecosystems also raises concerns about the management of marine systems, as it may be too difficult to return to previous states (Hobbs et al, 2006;Beger et al, 2014;Makino et al, 2014;Pecl et al, 2017). Moreover, prominent changes in foundation species, such as a kelp species, can have cascading consequences for the entire community (Vergeś et al, 2014) by altering biotic interactions and modifying the habitat, hence the goods and services the ecosystem provides (Kang, 2010;Pecl et al, 2017;Aguilar et al, 2022). Until the late 1980s, Jeju Island's benthic ecosystem was dominated by temperate kelp forests, especially the native species Ecklonia cava (Kang, 2010).…”