Order up! Serving marine invasives on a plate: Comparing invasive species richness and percent cover at sites with differing maritime pressures around Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos

Abstract

Marine invasive species impact the biodiversity of island ecosystems, leading to negative effects on native species diversity and their environment. One pathway that facilitates this disruption is the unintentional transport of non-native species through human activities. Biofouling on boats accelerates the speed of dispersal and natural range of many marine invasives. Biofouling ships travelling from international waters can facilitate the initial colonization of invasive species while secondary spread can occur when smaller boats travel along the coast, picking up invaders at colonized ports. Native fouling communities can be impacted by these visiting biofouled boats. Can you insert a sentnece here that addresses the knowledge gap? That will set up your next sentence: To address this knowledge gap, settlement plates at docks in the Galápagos Marine Reserve were deployed for 2-3 months and analyzed for xyz with photoQuad software. Results indicated increased invasive species richness at sites with more boat traffic, but consistent measures of invasive species percent cover between sites. Native species richness was also consistent between sites. Docks also exhibited significant differences in community composition, consisting of a mix of strong and weak invasive competitors among sites. Implications of my results are discussed in the context of marine invader detection protocols and monitoring of sites with high maritime traffic or strong competitor presences. The relationship between marine invasive species and maritime traffic can help indicate which docks are at a higher risk to invasions, allowing managers to closely monitor these sites.