Carlos-Júnior L A, Barbosa N P U, Moulton T P, Creed J C
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Departamento de Ecologia, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524 - Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20550-013, Brazil; Coral-Sol Research, Technological Development and Innovation Network, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Biologia Geral, Avenida Antônio Carlos, 6627 - Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270901, Brazil.
Mar Environ Res. 2015 Feb;103:115-24. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2014.10.004. Epub 2014 Oct 28.
All organisms have a set of ecological conditions (or niche) which they depend on to survive and establish in a given habitat. The ecological niche of a species limits its geographical distribution. In the particular case of non-indigenous species (NIS), the ecological requirements of the species impose boundaries on the potential distribution of the organism in the new receptor regions. This is a theoretical assumption implicit when Ecological Niche Models (ENMs) are used to assess the potential distribution of NIS. This assumption has been questioned, given that in some cases niche shift may occur during the process of invasion. We used ENMs to investigate whether the model fit with data from the native range of the coral Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1829 successfully predicts its invasion in the Atlantic. We also identified which factors best explain the distribution of this NIS. The broad native distributional range of T. coccinea predicted the invaded sites well, especially along the Brazilian coast, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The occurrence of T. coccinea was positively related to calcite levels and negatively to eutrophy, but was rather unaffected to other variables that often limit other marine organisms, suggesting that this NIS has wide ecological limits, a trait typical of invasive species.
所有生物都有一套它们赖以生存并在特定栖息地立足的生态条件（或生态位）。一个物种的生态位限制了其地理分布。就非本土物种（NIS）而言，该物种的生态需求为其在新的受体区域的潜在分布划定了界限。这是在使用生态位模型（ENMs）评估非本土物种的潜在分布时隐含的一个理论假设。鉴于在某些情况下，入侵过程中可能会发生生态位转移，这一假设受到了质疑。我们使用生态位模型来研究，基于1829年勒松描述的珊瑚瘤海葵（Tubastraea coccinea）原生地数据构建的模型能否成功预测其在大西洋的入侵情况。我们还确定了哪些因素能最好地解释这种非本土物种的分布情况。瘤海葵广泛的原生分布范围能较好地预测其入侵地点，特别是在巴西海岸、加勒比海和墨西哥湾沿岸。瘤海葵的出现与方解石含量呈正相关，与富营养化呈负相关，但对其他通常会限制其他海洋生物的变量影响较小，这表明这种非本土物种具有广泛的生态耐受范围，这是入侵物种的典型特征。
