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Facing the arrival of newcomers: an intertidal sea anemone approach (Hexacorallia, Actiniaria)

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Abstract

In this experimental study we explore a dominance-subordination network within a key group of polyphagous opportunistic organisms. This study also includes the possible reconfiguration of this network after the arrival of exotic species of the same ecological guild. Intertidal sea anemone species have been used as an experimental model for this purpose. There are a few documented fight-specialized external morphological structures in actiniarians, including acrorhagii and catch-tentacles, which are also accompanied by a more-or-less differentiated endowment of cnidocysts. Although it is possible to identify an old immigrant in the native dominance-subordination network under study, we also explore the hypothetical arrival of an exotic population of a pantropical sea anemone species, and its effects on the current set of interactions. In this community we detected the presence of the alien species Diadumene lineata (= Haliplanella lineata, = H. luciae) of Pacific origin, which is considered to be a relatively old immigrant in European waters. Exaiptasia pallida (= Aiptasia pallida, among other synonyms), with a worldwide warm-tropical distribution, is here used experimentally as a second invasive alien. A simple Competitive Efficiency index (CEi) is proposed in order to quantify the competitive capacities of these species. The CEi of a given species is based on the percentage of conflicts won, lost, tied, and mutually avoided. Our results demonstrate how alien species can re-organize the hierarchy and dominance-subordination relationships in an established network of interactions, even considering the possible ecological substitution of natives by alien species which are ecologically equivalent (but not identical in their relationships).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. César Megina for logistical assistance during the elaboration of this study. Special thanks to Lucía Paniagua for illustrating sea anemone behaviors for this paper, as well as to the colleagues of the research team Biodiversidad y Ecología de Invertebrados Marinos of the Universidad de Sevilla for their assistance during the laboratory work and for the encouragement received during this study. We also thank the specialized stores in tropical marine fauna “Planeta Reef” and “Hobby Zoo” that kindly provided the specimens of Exaiptasia pallida for the experimental designs carried out in this study. This research benefited from discussions among the research team, infrastructures and sampling trips carried out during the Project RNM-744 “Conexiones entre poblaciones de corales en el entorno del Estrecho de Gibraltar y mar de Alborán. Evaluación de riesgos para un endemismo mediterráneo (Astroides calycularis) por la presencia y expansión de especies de corales exóticos. (CORAL)” funded by the Regional Governmental Agency “Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo (Junta de Andalucía)”. The authors would like to thank the Editors and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments and criticisms on the first draft of this paper. Finally, we thank Mr. Tony Krupa for reviewing the English version.

Funding

Partial support (aquaria systems and sampling trips) was provided by the Spanish Regional Governmental Agency “Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo (Junta de Andalucía)” to the Project RNM-744 “CORAL”.

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  1. Pablo Escribano-Álvarez and Pablo J. López-González have equally contributed to this work.

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  1. Biodiversidad y Ecología de Invertebrados Marinos (BEIM), Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes, 6, 41012, Sevilla, Spain

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10530_2018_1748_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Table of variations of the Competitive Efficiency index (CEi) according to the different global results in the interactions (in  %) (DOCX 14 kb)

10530_2018_1748_MOESM2_ESM.wmv

Interaction between Actinothoe sphyrodeta (smaller individual on the left) and Bunodactis rubripunctata (larger individual on the right). Although the maximum experimental time was 60 min, this contest was resolved in ca. 12 min. The original video footage has not been edited, just accelerated 64x for observation(WMV 14204 kb)

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Escribano-Álvarez, P., López-González, P.J. Facing the arrival of newcomers: an intertidal sea anemone approach (Hexacorallia, Actiniaria). Biol Invasions 20, 2945–2962 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1748-6

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