Eleven years of range expansion of two invasive corals (Tubastraea coccinea and Tubastraea tagusensis) through the southwest Atlantic (Brazil) Q2 Amanda Guilherme da Silva a , Alline Figueira de Paula b , Beatriz Grosso Fleury c , Joel Christopher Creed c, * a Programa de Pós Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, CEP: 20550-900 Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil b Petrobras, CEP: 20271-205 Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil c Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, CEP: 20550900 Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil article info Article history: Received 4 November 2013 Accepted 30 January 2014 Available online xxx Keywords: abundance coral distribution range expansion reef Tubastraea spp. abstract We report on the temporal and spatial changes in populations of the invasive corals Tubastraea coccinea and Tubastraea tagusensis over an eleven year period at the Ilha Grande Bay, tropical southwest Atlantic. A semi-quantitative method was used to investigate the geographical distribution of the two congeners on subtidal rocky reefs along 350 km of coastline by applying a relative abundance index (RAI) to quantify change. Data were compared among 2000, 2004, 2010 and 2011. The indices showed a transition from rarity to dominance throughout the region as well as range expansion; in contrast at one site, where a pilot management initiative of manual control has been carried out, there was a reduction in abun- dance over time. Abundance values were compared to distance from possible points of introduction to pinpoint where the initial introduction occurred. The observed relationship between the possible points of entry and abundance of the two Tubastraea species was highly significant for the achorage and oil terminal whereas somewhat less so for the shipyard, and port. The data obtained in this study are being used to plan further urgent management actions to control the biological invasion of the two Tubastraea species throughout the region, as well as being applied in modeling the range expansion into other regions. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The rates and pathways by which species move around the planet have been completely modified by human action (Vitousek et al., 1987). Shipping contributes to the elimination or reduction of the natural barriers that have always delimited marine ecosys- tems, increasing homogenization of marine flora and fauna worldwide (Silva and Souza, 2004). The successful establishment of marine invasive species is largely due to the transport of ballast water, and fouling on ships, platforms and floating objects (Carlton and Geller, 1993; Carlton, 1996). Regardless of the pathways and mechanisms involved in the process of introduction, invasive species can transform the structure and function of an ecosystem by creating novel interactions, or by changing fluxes of material and energy through the system. Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1829 and Tubastraea tagusensis Wells, 1982 (Anthozoa; Dendrophyllidae) are considered to be the first scleractinian corals to have invaded the southern Atlantic, in what is an uncommon two-species marine introduction. They are azooxanthellate, not depending directly on sunlight for their development, and can frequently be found in shaded places like caves, overhangs and beneath boulders on subtidal tropical rocky shores and reefs (De Paula and Creed, 2005). T. coccinea is now considered to be a cosmopolitan species (Cairns, 1994). T. tagusensis was first described in the Galapagos Archipelago (Wells, 1982) but has also been recorded from Nicobar Islands (Cairns, 2000), Palau (Cairns, 2000) and Kuwait (Hodgson and Carpenter, 1995). Both are considered non-indigenous and invasive along the Brazilian coast (De Paula and Creed, 2004), and T. coccinea has also been consid- ered invasive in the Caribbean (since 1943, in Puerto Rico and * Corresponding author. Laboratório de Ecologia Marinha Bêntica, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcântara Gomes, Departamento de Ecologia, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, PHLC Sala 220, CEP 20550-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. E-mail address: jcreed@uerj.br (J.C. Creed). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecss http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2014.01.013 0272-7714/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science xxx (2014) 1e8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 YECSS4377_proof ■ 12 February 2014 ■ 1/8 Please cite this article in press as: Guilherme da Silva, A., et al., Eleven years of range expansion of two invasive corals (Tubastraea coccinea and Tubastraea tagusensis) through the southwest Atlantic (Brazil), Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.ecss.2014.01.013