Abstract
The safest and most efficient method of avoiding costs and impacts associated with biological invasions is to prevent the introduction and establishment of non-native species. In Brazil, two invasive coral species have been causing ecological, economic and social impacts: Tubastraea coccinea and Tubastraea tagusensis. This work presents a protocol to analyze the risk of invasion in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the State of Rio de Janeiro considering the main vector of these species on the Brazilian coast. This protocol takes five risk factors into account: environmental similarity between the donor area and the possible receiving area; available substrate for colonization; proximity to the donor region; proximity and quantity of oil platforms and drill ships that passed by the analyzed MPAs and proximity and quantity of oil platforms and drill ships that anchored near the MPAs. Results must be used by decision-makers for a better management of Marine Protected Areas. The protocol we present can be applied to analyze the relative risk of invasion throughout the Brazilian coast, in order to prioritize areas for early detection and monitoring of the presence of sun corals.
Highlights
Thousands of species have been carried by man from their native ranges during the last centuries impacting many marine ecosystems around the world (Lockwood et al 2007)
As the environmental similarity was high for all the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), showing that the similarity does not influence in the sun coral invasion in Rio de Janeiro State, the environmental similarity factor was removed from this risk analysis
Arraial do Cabo MPA was in the second position, but rocky shore extension of this area is less than a quarter of Cairuçu MPA
Summary
Thousands of species have been carried by man from their native ranges during the last centuries impacting many marine ecosystems around the world (Lockwood et al 2007). Shipping is the main global pathway for unintentional transference of marine non-indigenous species (Molnar et al 2008). Two species of sun coral are found on the Brazilian coast, Tubastraea coccinea (Lesson 1829) and Tubastraea tagusensis (Wells 1982) and have been causing ecological, economic and social impacts. Both species are native to the Pacific Ocean and, besides Brazil; they have invaded the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico (Sammarco et al 2004, Figueroa et al 2019) and the Canary Islands (López et al 2019)
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