Non-indigenous species contribute equally to biofouling communities in international vs local ports in the Biobío region, Chile

Abstract

Growing coastal urbanization together with the intensification of maritime traffic are major processes explaining the increasing rate of biological introductions in marine environments. To investigate the link between international maritime traffic and the establishment of non-indigenous species (NIS) in coastal areas, biofouling communities in three international and three nearby local ports along 100 km of coastline in south-central Chile were compared using settlement panels and rapid assessment surveys. A larger number of NIS was observed in international ports, as expected in these ‘invasion hubs’. However, despite a few environmental differences between international and local ports, the two port categories did not display significant differences regarding NIS establishment and contribution to community structure over the studied period (1.5 years). In international ports, the free space could be a limiting factor for NIS establishment. The results also suggest that local ports should be considered in NIS surveillance programs in Chile.

Keywords:

• Propagule pressure
• non-indigenous species
• cryptogenic species
• maritime traffic
• predators
• diversity

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to M Altamirano, R Reed and O Marin for diving assistance, J Martínez and J del Carmen for sailing assistance and to B Pedreros, A Carillo, A Gallegos, N Fernández, A Araya, V Molina, E Fernandez, G Vargas, MJ Ferro, P Valenzuela, N Cofré, C Emileletueur and the CIBAS institute for help with logistics at the study sites. They are also grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their comments that helped to improve the manuscript. They finally thank D Gordon and V Häussermann for help with Exochella and Acontiaria identification, respectively. AB was supported by a FONDECYT grant, N°1170598. JCL was funded by a postdoctoral fellowship CONICYT FONDECYT/POSTDOCTORADO/3160172.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.