Alien Marine Species in the Mediterranean - the 100 'Worst Invasives' and their Impact

By N. Streftaris, Argyro Zenetos. 2006

678 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A number of marine alien species have been described as invasive or locally invasive in the Mediterranean because of their proliferation, and/or their geographical spread and/or impact on native populations. Based on that information and on the documented impact they have on the biodiversity and socioeconomics of the basin, a preliminary list of the 100 ‘worst’ Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in the Mediterranean has been produced and presented in this work along with details on their impact. Emphasis is given to their impact on socioeconomics (fi sheries/aquaculture, health & sanitation, infrastructure & building), documented for 43 species. Such selection of the ‘worst’ IAS was diffi cult and controversial and is expected to attract much attention and scientifi c criticism since not only can the documentation of the impact of IAS be controversial, but also their inventory can be biased towards the effort and resources devoted to the study of the impact of certain species/taxonomic groups. Thus, while marine plants (phytobenthos and phytoplankton) are fairly well studied, less attention has been paid to the impact of vertebrates and even less to invertebrates. Nevertheless, the list highlights the need for continued research on the issue (monitoring aliens and their impact for an integrated ecosystem based management approach over the entire area). The preliminary list can provide the basis for selecting indicator species within the Mediterranean and thus be the common ground to build cooperation about IAS within countries in the region.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4cf1d9c47e9f14c29cf30fb28cd6f03ae2ca55d9

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Citations in the corpus

Mediterranean warming triggers seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) shoot mortality (2009, background): “Further, where lost P. oceanica meadows are being replaced, they are largely being replaced by exotic, invasive species of tropical and subtropical origin, notably the macroalgae Caulerpa racemosa, considered among the most damaging exotic species in the Mediterranean (Streftaris & Zenetos, 2006).”
The significance of the sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Islands for the assessment of the vulnerability of native communities to climate change, alien insect invasions and plant viruses (2011, background): “…damage through their increasingly greater alteration of terrestrial, marine and freshwater communities, and thus are becoming a worldwide ecological and conservation concern (Kolar and Lodge 2001; Mooney and Cleland 2001; Richardson and Pysek 2008; Simberloff 2003; Streftaris and Zenetos 2006).”
Marine invasion genetics: from spatio-temporal patterns to evolutionary outcomes (2014, background): “The Mediterranean Sea is the most altered and invaded of all European seas, with recent estimates of the number of introduced species ranging between 500 and 1,000 species (Streftaris et al. 2005; Streftaris and Zenetos 2006; Galil 2009; Coll et al. 2010; Zenetos et al. 2012).”
Additions to the annotated list of marine alien biota in the mediterranean with special emphasis on foraminifera and parasites (2008, background): “Both species infect native bivalves and M. orientalis is considered a serious pest (STREFTARIS & ZENETOS, 2006).”
Update of alien fauna and new records from Tunisian marine waters (2015, background): “However, accounts of Invasive Aliens Species (IAS) impacts especially in ecological and economical/society terms are very recent (Streftaris & Zenetos, 2006; Davidson et al., 2014; Ojaveer et al., 2015; Lehtiniemi et al., 2015).”
Aquatic alien species in Greece (2009): tracking sources, patterns and effects on the ecosystem. (2009, background): “The grapsid crab, Percnon gibbesi, is the most invasive decapod species to enter the Mediterranean (Streftaris & Zenetos, 2006).”
Potential impacts of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions on Mediterranean marine ecosystems and cetaceans (2008, background): “Photophilic subtidal macrophyte assemblages appear particularly vulnerable to invasions of exotic algal species such as Caulerpa taxifolia (Streftaris & Zenetos, 2006).”
The Tropical Seagrass Halophila stipulacea: Reviewing What We Know From Its Native and Invasive Habitats, Alongside Identifying Knowledge Gaps (2020, background): “stipulacea was categorized as one of the worst invasive species in the Mediterranean (Lowe et al., 2000; Streftaris and Zenetos, 2006), these observations suggest, in fact, a relatively limited “invasion success” in this region, as can also be inferred from the limited number of studies reporting co”
New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (July, 2017) (2017, background): “The blue crab has been included among the 100 worst IAS in the Mediterranean Sea (Streftaris & Zenetos, 2006); however, with the exception of the eastern sectors of the basin, the actual spatial-temporal characteristics of blue crab populations in non-native environments have been poorly…”
Fistularia commersonii in the Mediterranean Sea: invasion history and distribution modeling based on presence-only records (2013, background): “The absence of prolonged lags, as well as the quickness with which it spreads (Streftaris and Zenetos 2006; DAISIE 2008), could be related to high initial population growth rates, as highlighted for other invasive fish species by population dynamics models (Forsyth et al. 2012).”
Biological invaders are threats to human health: an overview (2014, background): “Harmful algal blooms increase in intensity and frequency in the Mediterranean Sea, significatively threatening ecosystems as toxin producers and agents of anoxic conditions (STREFTARIS & ZENETOS 2006).”