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Modeling biofouling from boat and source characteristics: a comparative study between Canada and New Zealand

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Abstract

In marine systems subject to vessel traffic, the likelihood of an invasion by an exotic species typically increases with the arrival of each infested boat. In this paper, recreational boating activity patterns and boat fouling by tunicates were compared between eastern Canada and central New Zealand, and the relative importance of boat characteristics on fouling was evaluated using Boosted Regression Tree analysis. For Canada, we also determined the relative importance of boat characteristics and propagule exposure (i.e., the interaction between tunicate density in source region and time in water) on patterns of boat fouling. Approximately half of boats examined during the fall in eastern Canada and during the summer in central New Zealand were fouled by tunicates. Although there was a greater richness of tunicate species on New Zealand boats, the two countries had several species or genera in common, including Botryllus schlosseri, Ciona spp. and Botrylloides spp. The time since last boat maintenance was longer in New Zealand than in Canada. However, boat fouling and boat-mediated spread may be facilitated in Canada by boating activity patterns there, as the movement of boats among multiple marinas is considerably greater than in New Zealand. Among the boat characteristics, voyage type, the time that boats spent in water (Canada) and time since last application of antifouling paint (New Zealand) were among the best predictors of boat fouling. However, our results from Canada showed that propagule exposure was more important than boat characteristics in predicting the presence of the invasive colonial tunicate, B. schlosseri. This study shows the importance of small boats as potential vectors for tunicates and demonstrates that predictive models for the spread of biofouling species should be based on regional boating patterns, boating characteristics, and local propagule exposure.

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Acknowledgments

We thank managers and boat owners in Canada and New Zealand for their help and permission to let us distribute questionnaires and to survey boats. Sophie Comtois, Jean-Charles Fleurent, Tanya Hansen, Maryse Plante-Couture, Rafael Estrada Anaya and Katie Kenny-Foeldessy for their essential help in distributing questionnaires and video surveying. Benedikte Vercaemer and Joanne Keays helped with field set-up. Rod Asher analyzed and identified specimens on video footages from New Zealand. Grant Hopkins, Lauren Fletcher, Eric Goodwin, Tanya Compton and Annick Drouin helped analyze and interpret results and gave insightful comments and ideas and Andréa Weise helped with the figures. We thank Nathalie Simard, Carla Barkhouse, Andrea Locke, Dawn Sephton, and Jennifer L. Martin for sharing tunicate abundance data obtained within marina surveys done by Fisheries and Ocean Canada (DFO). We also thank James Carleton and an anonymous reviewer for detailed comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Funding for this study was mainly provided by the Canadian Invasive Species Network (CAISN) and fieldwork was also funded by DFO and the Cawthron Institute (OBI contract C01X0502: Effective Management of Marine Biodiversity and Biosecurity). A. Lacoursière-Roussel was further supported by scholarships from McGill University and the Fonds de recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT) and F. Guichard was supported by Québec-Océan and a Discovery grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada

    Anaïs Lacoursière-Roussel & Frédéric Guichard

  2. Coastal and Benthic Ecology, Institut Maurice-Lamontagne, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, PO Box 1000, Mont-Joli, QC, G5H 3Z4, Canada

    Christopher W. McKindsey

  3. Coastal and Freshwater, Cawthron Institute, 98 Halifax Street East, Private Bag 2, Nelson, 7010, New Zealand

    Barrie M. Forrest & Richard F. Piola

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  1. Anaïs Lacoursière-Roussel
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  5. Christopher W. McKindsey
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Correspondence to Anaïs Lacoursière-Roussel.

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Lacoursière-Roussel, A., Forrest, B.M., Guichard, F. et al. Modeling biofouling from boat and source characteristics: a comparative study between Canada and New Zealand. Biol Invasions 14, 2301–2314 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-012-0230-0

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