James T Carlton

Williams College · Maritime Studies Program

This study presents the first comprehensive annotated checklist of polychaetes collected from floating dock communities across New England and adjacent New York areas, emphasizing the significance of rapid biodiversity assessment surveys in understanding marine biodiversity. With 61% of the identified species classified as cryptogenic, the research...

Kelp forests have deteriorated globally due to anthropogenic stressors. There is an urgent need to extend baselines, to understand the processes that underlie the persistence and recovery of kelp forests, and to distinguish the normal range of ecosystem variability from more extreme changes. Using a mixed-method, historical ecology approach, we int...

The Working Group on Ballast and Other Ship Vectors under the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, and Inter-national Maritime Organization (ICES/IOC/IMO WGBOSV) aims to provide scientific support to international decision-making to reduce the risk of spread and establishment of...

A non-native Dasya sp. is reported for the first time from Coos Bay, Oregon based on rbcL DNA sequence data. Further analysis shows that collections from Washington, California, and Oosterschelde, Netherlands, are the same species.

Drifting marine debris has been shown to host associated biological communities and facilitate their dispersal. Little is known about how biota engage with, and are transported by, this debris. This study characterizes debris-associated communities and explores the role of plastics in transferring fishes to new geographic regions. ~ 1500 underwater...

The purpose of this application, under Articles 23.9.3 and 81.1 of the Code, is to conserve the current usage of the specific name of the northeast Pacific Ocean marine mussel Mytilus californianus Conrad, 1837, the identity of which has never been questioned. After examining the type specimens of Mytilus zonarius Lamarck, 1819 and Mytilus canalis...

The purpose of this application, under Articles 23.9.3 and 81.1 of the Code, is to conserve the current usage of the specific name of the northeast Pacific Ocean marine mussel Mytilus californianus Conrad, 1837, the identity of which has never been questioned. After examining the type specimens of Mytilus zonarius Lamarck, 1819 and Mytilus canalis...

A significant challenge in comparing and contrasting regional reviews of non-native marine species diversity is that evaluation methods vary widely, resulting in highly inconsistent taxonomic, habitat and historical coverage even in ostensibly well-studied regions. It is thus difficult to interpret whether strikingly different numbers of non-native...

Aim Human activities have introduced numerous non‐native species (NNS) worldwide. Understanding and predicting large‐scale NNS establishment patterns remain fundamental scientific challenges. Here, we evaluate if NNS composition represents a proportional subset of the total species pool available to invade (i.e. total global biodiversity), or, conv...

Historical differences in crab abundance and temperature, along with the natural history of specific species, have caused littorinid snail shells to vary in morphology across New England's rocky shores. In New England (USA) the native rough periwinkle, Littorina saxatilis, overlaps with two introduced crab species, Hemigrapsus sanguineus and Carcin...

The register of global extinctions of marine invertebrates in historical time is updated. Three gastropod and one insect species are removed from the list of extinct marine species, while two gastropods, one echinoderm, and three parasites (a nematode, an amphipod, and a louse) are added. The nine extinct marine invertebrates now recognized likely...

The spionid polychaete Polydora hoplura Claparède, 1868 is a shell borer widely occurring across the world and considered introduced in many areas. It was originally described in the Gulf of Naples, Italy. Adult diagnostic features are the palps with black bands, prostomium weakly incised anteriorly, caruncle extending to the end of chaetiger 3, sh...

We show that the high seas are colonized by a diverse array of coastal species, which survive and reproduce in the open ocean, contributing strongly to its floating community composition. Analysis of rafting plastic debris in the eastern North Pacific Subtropical Gyre revealed 37 coastal invertebrate taxa, largely of Western Pacific origin, exceedi...

We provide the first report of the role of marine debris in transporting native and introduced species in the temperate Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Plastic was the most frequent biofouled material. Thirty-three attached species (five non-native) were found on rafted debris, 16 of which have not been previously reported as rafters. Forty-six percent o...

Information on early invasion stages, whether successful or not, is often lacking because most invaders are only discovered once they have become abundant enough to be casually detected or have caused appreciable changes to the recipient environment. Moreover, when newcomers fail to establish self-sustaining populations, they are often not even doc...

We report the first verified DNA barcode data for the tropical chthamalid barnacle Rehderella belyaevi (Zevina & Kurshakova, 1973) and place it in phylogenetic and biogeographic context among other lineages of Pacific barnacles. Hitherto found on a few remote but widely separated islands across the South Pacific, R. belyaevi is the sole described s...

Two well-known and long-standing global vectors for the dispersal of marine species are international shipping and international trade in edible seafood. Far less well known is the impact of these interoceanic movements on the biogeography of species boring into the calcareous substrata (barnacles and tubeworms in vessel biofouling and mollusc shel...

Recent global trade disruptions, due to blockage of the Suez Canal and cascading effects of COVID-19, have altered the movement patterns of commercial ships and may increase worldwide invasions of marine non-indigenous species. Organisms settle on the hulls and underwater surfaces of vessels and can accumulate rapidly, especially when vessels remai...

As human communities become increasingly interconnected through transport and trade, there has been a concomitant rise in both accidental and intentional species introductions, resulting in biological invasions. A warming global climate and the rapid movement of people and vessels across the globe have opened new air and sea routes, accelerated pro...

The hydroids of Cocos Island (Isla del Coco), Costa Rica, have received scant attention and are poorly known. Only 11 species have been reported from there previously, with five of them being stylasterids. Hydroids examined here were collected during 2019 in a search for invasive species, as part of a fouling survey. Fourteen species – three anthoa...

Biological invasions are a major driver of biodiversity loss and socioeconomic burden globally. As invasion rates accelerate worldwide, understanding past invasion dynamics is essential to inform predictions of future invaders and impacts. Owing to a high diversity of pathways and current biosecurity gaps, aquatic systems near urban centres are esp...

Aims The present study is the first attempt to grasp the scale and richness of marine biological invasions in Macaronesia. We pioneered a comprehensive non‐native species (NNS), inventory in the region to determine their diversity patterns and native distribution origins. NNS were defined here as the result of both introductions and range expansion...

We do not know how many marine invertebrate species are endangered or extinct. Habitat (including host) extirpation appears to be the driver for those few species considered extinct. Given the plethora of anthropogenic pressures on the ocean, it is often difficult to determine a single cause of decline for many threatened species. Further, acquirin...

Discoveries of persistent coastal species in the open ocean shift our understanding of biogeographic barriers. Floating plastic debris from pollution now supports a novel sea surface community composed of coastal and oceanic species at sea that might portend significant ecological shifts in the marine environment.

Cryptic species are a common phenomenon in cosmopolitan marine species. The use of molecular tools has often uncovered cryptic species occupying a fraction of the geographic range of the original morphospecies. Ship-worms (Teredinidae) are marine bivalves, living in drift and fixed wood, many of which have a conserved morphology across cosmopolitan...

William Anderson Newman passed away on December 26th 2020 at his home in La Jolla, California, aged 93. Bill spent much of his academic life at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and also had a long and enduring association with the California Academy of Sciences. A marine biologist with deep interests in palaeontology and geology, Bill made spec...

A marine bioinvasions Rapid Assessment Survey in August 2019, focused on marina floating pontoons in Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York recorded 21 non-indigenous, 22 cryptogenic and 2 range-expanding species. Five non-indigenous species (NIS) were found at more than 70% of the 10 sampled sites: three ascidians, Botryllus schlosseri (Pallas, 17...

Susan Lynn Williams (1951–2018) was an exceptional marine ecologist whose research focused broadly on the ecology of benthic nearshore environments dominated by seagrasses, seaweeds, and coral reefs. She took an empirical approach founded in techniques of physiological ecology. Susan was committed to applying her research results to ocean managemen...

William John Haugen (Bill) Light (Fig. 1) was born on 05 January 1938 in Waco, McLennan County, Texas USA, and died on 18 January 2020 in Marietta, Georgia, at the age of 82. He was buried in the Georgia National Cemetery, Canton, GA. As an infant, he was adopted by Col. Orin Haugen and his wife Marion Sargent. Colonel Haugen died in February 1945...

Unprecedented rates of introduction and spread of non-native species pose burgeoning challenges to biodiversity, natural resource management, regional economies, and human health. Current biosecurity efforts are failing to keep pace with globalization, revealing critical gaps in our understanding and response to invasions. Here, we identify four pr...

The spionid polychaete Pseudopolydora paucibranchiata (Okuda, 1937) was originally described from Japan and has since been reported as a non-indigenous species in soft bottom communities in the Northeast Pacific, the Mediterranean Sea, around Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Florida. The diagnostic features of the adults are palps with ramified yello...

Widespread non-native species tend to demonstrate an apparent lack of selectivity in habitat requirements, feeding regimes, and reproductive needs, while displaying a tendency to thrive in human-modified habitats. The high phenotypic plasticity typical of sessile, substrate-attached marine species may enhance their chances of survival and spread in...

Aim The introduction of aquatic non‐indigenous species (ANS) has become a major driver for global changes in species biogeography. We examined spatial patterns and temporal trends of ANS detections since 1965 to inform conservation policy and management. Location Global. Methods We assembled an extensive dataset of first records of detection of A...

Rapid Assessment Survey of the Gulf of Maine

One of the most thoroughly studied marine snails in the world is the North Atlantic periwinkle Littorina littorea. In 2013, Buckland-Nicks et al. reported upon an “extensive community of organisms” living “inside” L. littorea in Nova Scotia, Canada. Conflicting with this report is a vast body of research on this snail since the mid-nineteenth centu...

Biological invasions are a global consequence of an increasingly connected world and the rise in human population size. The numbers of invasive alien species – the subset of alien species that spread widely in areas where they are not native, affecting the environment or human livelihoods – are increasing. Synergies with other global changes are ex...

Aim While warming temperatures are expected to facilitate the poleward movement of species previously restricted to more equatorial waters, the arrival and persistence of cold‐water species in more equatorward waters are relatively unprecedented. The native north‐east Pacific ascidian Corella inflata Huntsman, 1912, has spread southward and invaded...

Global biodiversity is both declining and being redistributed in response to multiple drivers characterizing the Anthropocene, including synergies between biological invasions and climate change. The Antarctic marine benthos may constitute the last biogeographic realm where barriers (oceanographic currents, climatic gradients) have not yet been bro...

As plastic pollution in the environment has increased rapidly in the last half century, so too has the study of the effects of plastic on marine, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. From this research, a series of new terms has emerged to describe the phenomena unique to the presence of plastic-based materials in nature. In this short note, we brin...

The first comprehensive survey of marine bioinvasions in the southern Southwest Atlantic Ocean (SWA, ca. 33°45′–ca. 54°50′S) published in 2002 reported 31 introduced and 46 cryptogenic species. In this assessment, we update this work by providing a deep historical perspective of marine biological invasions as well as a full new review of introducti...

In 2014, a DNA‐based phylogenetic study confirming the paraphyly of the grass subtribe Sporobolinae proposed the creation of a large monophyletic genus Sporobolus, including (among others) species previously included in the genera Spartina, Calamovilfa, and Sporobolus. Spartina species have contributed substantially (and continue contributing) to o...

Plastics and other artificial materials pose new risks to health of the ocean. Anthropogenic debris travels across large distances and is ubiquitous in the water and on the shorelines, yet, observations of its sources, composition, pathways and distributions in the ocean are very sparse and inaccurate. Total amounts of plastics and other man-made...

Plastics and other artificial materials pose new risks to health of the ocean. Anthropogenic debris travels across large distances and is ubiquitous in the water and on the shorelines, yet, observations of its sources, composition, pathways and distributions in the ocean are very sparse and inaccurate. Total amounts of plastics and other man-made...

Maximenko et al. Integrated Marine Debris Observing System Plastics and other artificial materials pose new risks to the health of the ocean. Anthropogenic debris travels across large distances and is ubiquitous in the water and on shorelines, yet, observations of its sources, composition, pathways, and distributions in the ocean are very sparse an...

Reproductive strategies, whether sexual or asexual, are critical aspects of introduction success and spread for non-indigenous species. The Western Pacific Diadumene lineata (Verrill, 1869), the world’s most widely distributed sea anemone due to numerous introductions, is believed to reproduce only by asexual means outside of its home range. Over t...

Biological invasions are often characterized by a phase of post-establishment expansion in which the invading species increases its range through colonization of new geographic areas. These expansions are predicted to result in specific genetic signatures, most notably decreased genetic diversity with distance from the point of introduction. The As...

An account is given of hydroids collected in 2015 and 2016 from port and harbor fouling communities in the Galápagos Islands. Also included is the hydroid of Ectopleura media, discovered on the wreck of the tanker Jessica near Isla San Cristóbal in 2001. Among 20 species reported herein were six anthoathecates and 14 leptothecates. Most common in t...

The biofouling community on Santa Cruz and Baltra Islands, Galapagos, was surveyed in 2016 based on samples from settlement plates deployed in 2015 and 2016 at three different sites. We report numerous new records for the Galapagos fauna: one novel family (Opheliidae), nine novel genera, and 15 novel species records were documented in a total of se...

An account is given of hydroids collected in 2015 and 2016 from port and harbor fouling communities in the Galápagos Islands. Also included is the hydroid of Ectopleura media, discovered on the wreck of the tanker Jessica near Isla San Cristóbal in 2001. Among 20 species reported herein were six anthoathecates and 14 leptothecates. Most common in t...

Aim On 11 March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that resulted in the largest known rafting event in recorded history. By spring 2012, marine debris began washing ashore along the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada with a wide range of Asian coastal species attached. We used this unique dataset, where the...

The Galápagos Islands are recognized for their unique biota and are one of the world’s largest marine protected areas. While invasions by non-indigenous species are common and recognized as a significant conservation threat in terrestrial habitats of the Archipelago, little is known about the magnitude of invasions in its coastal marine waters. Bas...

The introduction of non-native species is an important element of global change in marine ecosystems. This phenomenon is considered to be among the main direct drivers of biodiversity change, exacerbated as it is by climate change, pollution, habitat loss and other human-induced disturbances. Some edible marine non-native species have been widely d...

Recent years have witnessed growing appreciation for the ways in which human-mediated species introductions have reshaped marine biogeography. Despite this we have yet to grapple fully with the scale and impact of anthropogenic dispersal in both creating and determining contemporary distributions of marine taxa. In particular, the past several deca...