Abstract
Artificial reefs created by deliberately sinking ships off the coast of the Florida Keys island chain are providing new habitat for marine invertebrates. This newly developing fouling community includes the previously reported invasive orange tube coral Tubastraea coccinea and the non-native giant foam oyster Hyotissa hyotis. New SCUBA-based surveys involving five shipwrecks spanning the upper, middle, and lower Florida Keys, show T. coccinea now also established in the lower Keys and H. hyotis likewise extending to new sites. Two additional mollusks found on the artificial reefs, the amathinid gastropod Cyclothyca pacei and gryphaeid oyster Hyotissa mcgintyi, the latter also common in the natural reef areas, are discussed as potentially non-native. A new species of sessile, suspension-feeding, worm-snail, Thylacodes vandyensis Bieler, Rawlings & Collins n. sp. (Vermetidae), is described from the wreck of the USNS Vandenberg off Key West and discussed as potentially invasive. This new species is compared morphologically and by DNA barcode markers to other known members of the genus, and may be a recent arrival from the Pacific Ocean. Thylacodes vandyensis is polychromatic, with individuals varying in both overall head-foot coloration and mantle margin color pattern. Females brood stalked egg capsules attached to their shell within the confines of their mantle cavity, and give rise to crawl-away juveniles. Such direct-developing species have the demonstrated capacity for colonizing habitats isolated far from their native ranges and establishing rapidly growing founder populations. Vermetid gastropods are common components of the marine fouling community in warm temperate and tropical waters and, as such, have been tagged as potentially invasive or with a high potential to be invasive in the Pacific Ocean. As vermetids can influence coral growth/composition in the Pacific and have been reported serving as intermediate hosts for blood flukes of loggerhead turtles, such new arrivals in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary are of concern. Growing evidence indicates that artificial reefs can act as permanent way-stations for arriving non-natives, providing nurseries within which populations may grow in an environment with reduced competition compared to native habitats. Consequently, artificial reefs can act as sentinels for the appearance of new species. Ongoing monitoring of the developing molluscan fauna on the artificial reefs of the Florida Keys is necessary to recognize new invasions and identify potential eradication targets, thereby assuring the health of the nearby natural barrier reef.
Highlights
Non-native molluscan colonizers on deliberately placed shipwrecks in the Florida Keys, with description of a new species of potentially invasive worm-snail (Gastropoda: Vermetidae)
The hexanuclear title compound, [{Cu3(3-OCH3)(-C3H2ClN2)3}2(C3H2ClN2)3(6-Cl)] or [Cu6(C3H2ClN2)9(CH3O)2Cl], crystallizes in the space group Pbcn, with individual molecules being located on a twofold rotation axis
The molecule adopts a trigonal prismatic shape, with two trinuclear units linked by three 4-chloropyrazolate ligand bridges by encapsulating a ClÀ anion in a 6-coordination mode
Summary
The crystal structure of the title compound (Fig. 1) consists of two trinuclear [Cu3(3-OMe)(-4-Cl-pz)3]2+ (OMe is a methoxide, 4-Cl-pz a 4-chloropyrazolato ligand) units bridged by three -4-Cl-pzÀ ligands; the complete molecule adopts .2. point group symmetry. The six CuII ions form a trigonal prismatic array and a chloride ion is located at the center of the cage, coordinating to the two {Cu}3 units in a 6 mode. Each Cu3 triangle is capped by an OMe group with the O atom 0.8472 (1) Aabove the Cu3 plane, a somewhat smaller deviation from the Cu3 plane than the one found in the previously reported structure of [{Cu3(3-OMe)(-pz)3}2(-pz)3(6-Cl)], where 3-bridging methoxy groups are located ca 1.0 Aabove this plane (Kamiyama et al, 2002). The inter-trimer and intratrimer CuÁ Á ÁCu distances are shorter in the title compound than those in the [Cu6Cl] compound reported earlier with 4-Hpz as a ligand (Kamiyama et al, 2002), indicating the effect of electron-withdrawing Cl-substitution of the pyrazolato ligands. The Cu—N distances are similar to those in the empty Cu6-pyrazolato cage (Mezei et al, 2007)
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