the effects of copper pollution on fouling assemblage diversity a tropical-temperate comparison铜污染对污染的影响组合多样性热带温带比较.pdfVIP

The Effects of Copper Pollution on Fouling Assemblage Diversity: A Tropical-Temperate Comparison ˜ 1,2 1 1 3 1 Joao Canning-Clode *, Paul Fofonoff , Gerhardt F. Riedel , Mark Torchin , Gregory M. Ruiz 1 Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland, United States of America, 2 CIMAR/CIIMAR – Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, Porto, Portugal, 3 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Republic of Panama Abstract Background: The invasion of habitats by non-indigenous species (NIS) occurs at a global scale and can generate significant ecological, evolutionary, economic and social consequences. Estuarine and coastal ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to pollution from numerous sources due to years of human-induced degradation and shipping. Pollution is considered as a class of disturbance with anthropogenic roots and recent studies have concluded that high frequencies of disturbance may facilitate invasions by increasing the availability of resources. Methodology/Principal Findings: To examine the effects of heavy metal pollution as disturbance in shaping patterns of exotic versus native diversity in marine fouling communities we exposed fouling communities to different concentrations of copper in one temperate (Virginia) and one tropical (Panama) region. Diversity was categorized as total, native and non- indigenous and we also incorporated taxonomic and functional richness. Our findings indicate that total fouling diversity decreased with increasing copper pollution, whether taxonomic or functional diversity is considered. Both native and non- indigenous richness decreased with increasing copper concentrations at the tropical site whereas at the temperate site, non-indigenous richness