Tolerance of the invasive marine alga Caulerpa taxifolia to burial by sediment

Glasby, Tim M.; Gibson, Peter T.; Kay, S. H.

doi:10.1016/j.aquabot.2005.02.004

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Because patch expansion and the high biomass of C. taxifolia are underpinned by fast-growing vegetative stolons, control measures such as applying bleach under tarpaulins (Anderson 2005) and smothering by salt (Glasby et al 2005a) require a rapid response to new outbreaks as those controls are only effective against relatively small discrete patches. Our findings also indicate that care needs to be taken to ensure that entire patches are treated by those controls and checked posttreatment for thalli that were not eradicated initially, particularly as C. taxifolia can tolerate burial by sediment (Glasby et al 2005b). Additionally, because fragments establish in the absence of stolons, the current management focus aimed at stopping the dispersal of fragments by restricting anchoring near C. taxifolia and providing ''wash-down'' stations for boats (Creese et al 2004) is important.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Demographic Feedback Between Clonal Growth and Fragmentation in an Invasive Seaweed

Wright¹,

Davis²

2006

Ecology

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Many abundant plants, invertebrates, and seaweed are clonal, and this allows the formation of high-density aggregations, foraging, and the placement of modules into new space, and rapid rates of expansion. For these species, population density and rates of expansion are functions of recruitment of asexual modules and post-recruitment vegetative growth and survivorship. In this study, we provide the first experimental test of the relative importance of these two processes in determining the abundance of a clonal seaweed using Caulerpa taxifolia, an invasive green alga that spreads rapidly and reaches very high abundance. We asked two main questions: What is the relative importance to abundance (biomass) of vegetative stolon growth and fragment recruitment during expansion of established patches? Does greater fragment recruitment result in greater abundance in established patches? Vegetative growth of stolons underpinned patch expansion. Plots with stolons growing into them always had a greater abundance than plots where stolons were removed, even when fragment recruitment was increased. Greater recruitment only resulted in greater abundance when stolons were absent, a situation analogous to the establishment of new populations. Although post-recruitment processes were more important in determining abundance during patch expansion, there was greater ambient fragment recruitment when stolons were present compared to when they were absent, and as the abundance of C. taxifolia increased, demonstrating an important feedback between stolon growth, abundance, and fragment recruitment. In established patches, greater fragment recruitment over six months (six levels ranging from 0 to 480 recruits x m(-2) x mo(-1)) had no effect on biomass. Our experiments demonstrate that the rapid expansion and high abundance of invasive C. taxifolia are underpinned by post-recruitment vegetative growth and, during expansion, by a feedback between vegetative growth and asexual fragmentation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Demographic Feedback Between Clonal Growth and Fragmentation in an Invasive Seaweed

Wright¹,

Davis²

2006

Ecology

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“…Non-indigenous, invasive, aquatic weeds significantly alter the ecosystems they colonize. This has been observed where the marine, green algae Caulerpa taxifolia, ((Vahl) C. Agardh) has been identified in many areas of the world including Europe, America and Australia (Meinesz, 1996;Withgott, 2002;Glasby et al, 2005). Fourteen waterways throughout New South Wales have infestations of C. taxifolia, typically located in the coastal estuaries (Creese et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling the spread and growth of Caulerpa taxifolia in closed waterways in southern Australia using cellular automata

McArthur

Dunn

Schreider

2013

Piantadosi, J., Anderssen, R.S. And Boland J. (Eds) MODSIM2013, 20th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation

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This study presents the mathematical development of a cellular automata model for the species Caulerpa taxifolia for closed or intermittently closed waterways along the Australian coast. The model is used to assess the spatial coverage of C. taxifolia by describing changes in growth, spread and total biomass for the species. Building upon a foundation model developed by the authors, this study was designed to enhance the predictive capabilities of a model based upon a discrete version of Laplace's equation. The improvements relate to several components integrated into the Laplacian coefficients; a periodic function which represents the seasonal variations in growth, the incorporation of the prevailing wind to represent the most likely direction of spread, and growth restrictions based on lake depth. The additional complexity improved the predictive capability of the model. Cellular Automata (CA) have been used to model changing plant distributions over the last 20 years, providing efficient models for complex environmental systems, particularly of exotic species. In this project the discrete CA algorithm is designed to determine the state or biomass B = {−1, 0, 1, 2} of the current cell using the primary rule of the discrete Laplacian system. Biomass of −1 refers to land, and the other values represent the relative quantity of the weed in the cell; none, sparse or dense respectively. Cell interactions are governed by the coefficients of the Laplacian system which is discussed.The foundation model incorporated simple rules, not unlike those of John Conway's Game of Life. The biomass of the surrounding cells at time t determines the state of the central cell at time t + 1. The boundary conditions were catered for by allocating a biomass of negative one to the land cells adjacent to the water.

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“…are often passengers of environmental change (Bulleri et al 2011). Species of Caulerpa also tend to show a high tolerance to sedimentation (which tends to be greatest in heavily populated areas) compared to many other seaweeds (Piazzi et al 2005;Glasby et al 2005;Piazzi et al 2007;Glasby et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2022

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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.

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Tolerance of the invasive marine alga Caulerpa taxifolia to burial by sediment

Cited by 21 publications

References 37 publications

Demographic Feedback Between Clonal Growth and Fragmentation in an Invasive Seaweed

Demographic Feedback Between Clonal Growth and Fragmentation in an Invasive Seaweed

Modelling the spread and growth of Caulerpa taxifolia in closed waterways in southern Australia using cellular automata

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

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