Marine Invasive Species

Invasive species have a history of damaging the ecosystems in which they are introduced. How marine invasive species interact with other stressors produce an increased negative effect on the ecosystem; usually the marine invasive species alone does not create a stressor. As more marine species are introduced into the environment, the magnitude of the interactions will only increase. NOAA dictates four reasons why marine invasive species are not typically thought as important stressors for the ecosystem. One, there have been few marine fish invasions. According to NOAA in 2003, out of 555 introduced fish species, 22 were introduced into marine environments (a total of 3.96% of exoctic fish introduced in the USA, as shown in Table 1). Two, most
The lionfish itself is built for invasion. They have a wide range of diet, known to eat 70 different species of fish along Florida, including other lionfish. These vocarious and ambitious predators can expand their stomach 30 times in volume, making it capable of eating fish as large as a 20 pound grouper. A lionfish is known to be able to survive up to 3 months without food; with the lionfish in the Atlantic though, the lionfish are actually obese due to overeating, even suffering from liver damage. It is estimated that a single lionfish can reduce marine creatures by 80% to 90% within 5 weeks. This broad diet is part of how lionfish make such a huge impact on the ecosystems. With no natural predators, the lionfish can typically roam where it pleases. However when they are threatened, lionfish have 18 large spines filled with toxin that can release when it pricks something. Lauren Arrington, of Florida, and Craig Layman, of South Carolina, did experiments that demonstrated that lionfish could tolerate a minimum salinity of five ppt. This allows potential expansions into brackish waters, estuaries, rivers, and streams. With how these fish breed, any place can become a lionfish spawning ground. From the age of 6 months to their death, Female lionfish release 12000 to 15000 eggs in egg masses at minimum every four days in optimum tropical climates, such as Florida. These masses
With Florida near the most concentrated part of the Gulf Stream, the floating egg masses are able to travel and deposit anywhere along the East Coast of America with the help of the gulf stream and warming waters, as mentioned earlier. The following maps help illustrate how the gulf stream interacted with lionfish expansion. As you can see, lionfish first began expansion along the gulf stream. Cold core rings, define, transport the larvae from Florida to the Bahamas as well. The same can happen for warm core rings, except from from Florida to North East USA. feedback