FIRST DATA ON THE NEW EXPANSION OF CAULERPA TAXIFOLIA (CHLOROPHYTA) IN TAVOLARA PUNTA CODA CAVALLO MARINE PROTECTED AREA

Abstract

In 2002, a patch of the tropical macroalga Caulerpa taxifolia (Vahl) C. Agardt was found in Tavolara Punta Coda Cavallo Marine Protected Area. Despite the species is considered one of the most invasive alien algae in the Mediterranean, in the MPA, after two manual eradications and several periodic surveys, C. taxifolia was slightly regressing until 2016. From 2017, instead, the patch appeared to be expanding again.

The aim of this study, conducted in the summer of 2020, was, therefore, to characterize the mentioned patch of C. taxifolia, comparing the obtained data with those available for 2016.

Results confirmed that a new expansion event is currently occurring in the MPA, presumably due to the presence of a newly recorded, highly invasive variety of C. taxifolia, C. taxifolia var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman and Procaccini, that is spreading also in other areas of the basin.