Abstract
A newly abundant Gracilaria species in the sounds of southeastern North Carolina has become a problem for commercial fishing and industries drawing water from the lower Cape Fear River. DNA sequence analyses have shown that this species is Gracilaria vermiculophylla, a taxon originally described from East Asia. Surveys for G. vermiculophylla have shown that it has a discontinuous distribution in the sounds of southeastern North Carolina, and suggest that it is spreading. Gracilaria vermiculophylla meets 6 of the 10 criteria used to help identify invasive species in that it has only recently appeared in southeastern North Carolina; is associated with human mechanisms of dispersal; has a restricted distribution; has disjunct populations in isolated oceans; no means of active dispersal, and an exotic evolutionary origin. The species may also meet two additional criteria as its local range is believed to be expanding, and it is filling a previously unoccupied seasonal niche. These factors taken together strongly suggest that G. vermiculophylla is an invasive species in southeastern North Carolina.
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