Marine aquaculture as a source of propagules of invasive fouling species.

ABSTRACT: Non-indigenous species tend to colonize aquaculture installations, especially when they are near international ports. In addition to the local environmental hazard that colonizing non-indigenous species pose, they can also take advantage of local transport opportunities to spread elsewhere. In this study, we examined the risk of the spread of eight invasive fouling species that are found in mussel farms in southern Brazil. We used ensemble niche models based on worldwide occurrences of these species, and environmental variables (ocean temperature and salinity) to predict suitable areas for each species with three algorithms (Maxent, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine). As a proxy for propagule pressure, we used the tonnage transported by container ships from Santa Catarina (the main

SUBMITTER: Lins DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10269578 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature