Invasion patterns in artificial vs natural marine habitats: peracarids as models at different spatial scales in the Southwestern Atlantic

RUMBOLD, CARLOS; GIACHETTI, CLARA BELÉN; BATTINI, NICOLÁS; CASTRO, KAREN LIDIA; OBENAT, SANDRA

Puerto Madryn

Congreso; Xth International Conference on Marine Bioinvasions; 2018

Peracarid species have invaded a large number of environments worldwide, making them an excellent model to study invasive patterns in marine environments. In the present study we identified and quantified peracarid species in artificial and natural environments of the SW Atlantic, to determine the current status of exotic and native species, their richness and seasonal variation and distribution, and to understand the general invasion patterns of peracarids at different spatial scales. Five fouling samples were collected seasonally from 2016 to 2017 in two ports and two natural environments from two biogeographic provinces of Argentina, exposed to warm- (38° S) and cold-temperate waters (42° S). Replicate samples were collected by hand and scuba diving (0.20 x 0.20 m quadrants each). Artificial environment from warm-temperate region showed higher richness of exotic and cryptogenic species (n=9) than the natural habitat (n=4), while in the cold-temperate environments no differences were found (n=3-4) for exotic and cryptogenic species. Only two native species were registered in both regions. The present study showed a dominance of cryptogenic and exotic peracarid species during all seasons in natural and artificial marine environments of SW Atlantic. Differences in species assemblages at local and regional scale, suggest that factors such as propagule pressure, temperature, species diversity and the structure of artificial habitats would be closely related to these dissimilarities. The analysis of species assemblages together with their regional distribution allows us to discuss the potential invasive pattern in Southwestern Atlantic