[Coral-List] Exotic vs. Invasive

[J. Michael Nolan]

John and Others....

I posed this question to the amazing, and now over 15,000 member Ecolog-l list a year or so ago. Was amazed at how many e-mails were posted on what I thought was a simple question. Turns out it was not so simple. Did save the e-mails I believe. If you want them, e-mail me off-line.

Also, one of these weeks will summarize all the great replies I got toxic fumes created for some that have had Marine Aquaria.

Thank you.

Mike Nolan

Hi John

Exotic is any introduced species.  And there is a gigantic and never ending debate about what to call them, eg, exotic, introduced, alien, non-native, etc

The distinction with invasive is somewhat subjective and isn't set in stone, but in general, Invasive exotics are very common, probably to the point of being community dominants and potentially having negative effects on native species.  They are also considered to have become "naturalized" ie, established self-sustaining populations, which is a much lower bar than the dominance threshold and Tubastraea would certainly qualify.  In fact, in their microhabitat, I think Tubastraea can be quite common and Id be comfortable labeling them as "invasive".  And funny, but I just had a manuscript reviewer say lionfish were not invasive, so don't be surprised to hear disagreement about this stuff.

Cheers,

JB

John F Bruno, PhD
Professor
Department of Biology
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
www.johnfbruno.com<http://www.johnfbruno.com/>


species are exotics that

Dear List,

Ken Marks recent post concerning Tubastraea micranthus reminded me of an
incident that occurred on a recent trip to Bonaire.  A divemaster was
bemoaning the "invasion" of lionfish.  When I mentioned that the "poster
coral" for Bonaire (Tubastraea sp) was invasive, I was severely
chastised.  Lionfish were "invasive", Tubastraea was "exotic".

I noted that Ken Marks used both "exotic" and "invasion" in his e-mail.
I had never thought about the distinction before.

After Googling around a bit, I concluded that if the species under
consideration was sort of cute, it was "exotic".  If it was ugly, it was
"invasive".

While that is a vast oversimplification, I wonder if the coral-reef
community distinguishes "exotic" from "invasive" and, if so, is there a
precise definition of the difference?

John


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