Invasive barnacles news
Amphibalanus improvisus - a particulary annoying barnacle invasive species. My contribution to the Invasive Species Compendium is now published on the CABI web-site.
Amphibalanus improvisus - a particulary annoying barnacle invasive species. My contribution to the Invasive Species Compendium is now published on the CABI web-site.
This barnacle is mentioned in the biofouling-related literature probably more often than any other. During the last 15 years the number of citations has grown in hundreds. Any finding of the barnacle in ports or on ships is bound to be documented and monitored. The celebrity is a small acorn barnacle called Amphibalanus improvisus.
The species is typical for the shallow fringe of sea (less than 10 m deep), occurring in marine and brackish environments. It became notorious, when has been dispersed by shipment outside its natural distribution area, which is considered to be the eastern Atlantic. A. improvisus was first recorded as invasive in Europe and California in the middle of the nineteenth century, with further distribution records to the Pacific and Australasia. Its success worldwide has been attributed to the fact that it is euryhaline and eurythermal,able to self-fertilize, establish and mature rapidly, has a high reproductive capacity and long settlement period, and utilizes a wide range of food.
Now A. improvisus, being blamed for economic and ecological damage in many non-native areas, is named as one of the 100 worst alien speciesin Europe. In the Baltic, for example, A. improvisus is the only barnacle from which the fouling impacts may be economically significant. Thus, in Swedish waters the species is accounted for damage estimated 166-418 million SEK (Swedish krona),most of the money were spent on fouling control of recreational
boats.
Long ago barnacles started to cross oceans waters on ship and boats and migrate along coastlines achieving sometimes cosmopolitan distribution. Often the pattern of invasion and reinvasion of the species and changes in distribution (such as moving northwards or southward) act as a monitor of global change in the marine environment. Many fecund fouling groups such as Austrominius and Amphibalanus are predicted to establish and flourish in new waters, changing marine communities and affecting human activities.