Sinoflustra annae

Invasion History

First Non-native North American Tidal Record: 2002
First Non-native West Coast Tidal Record:
First Non-native East/Gulf Coast Tidal Record: 2002

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General Invasion History:

Sinoflustra annae was first described from Balboa, Panama, at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal (Osburn 1953). However, the broad environmental tolerance of this species and its frequent occurrence on docks and other man-made structures is strongly suggestive of ship transport and introduction in this region. An Indo-Pacific origin seems most likely (McCann et al. 2007). Its range in this region includes the East and West coasts of India (Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal) (Menon and Nair 1969; Rao and Batiaji 1988; Udhayakumar and Karande 1989; Karande and Udhayakumar 1992; Swami and Karande 1994), the coast of China from Hainan to Zhejiang Province (Huang 2002; Li 1989, cited by McCann et al. 2007), and the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia (Bock 2009). Sinoflustra annae has been introduced to Florida, the Caribbean coast of Panama, Brazil and Africa. Its encrusting morphology, planktotrophic larvae, and tolerance of low salinity are traits which have favored its transport and spread by fouling and ballast water, its passage through the Panama Canal, and its colonization of estuarine habitats (McCann et al. 2007).

North American Invasion History:

Invasion History on the East Coast:

In 2002, Sinoflustra annae was found to be very abundant on fouling plates in the St. Johns River estuary, Jacksonville, Florida (McCann et al. 2007). In Jacksonville, where salinity ranged from 34 to 3 PSU, this species dominated bryozoan communities, together with the introduced Electra bengalensis. Both of these species are tolerant of low salinities. Sinoflustra annae was not found in five other Florida and Gulf estuaries that have been surveyed by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s Marine Invasions program (McCann et al. 2007).

Invasion History Elsewhere in the World:

By 1930, Sinoflustra annae was established at Balboa, near the Panama Canal (Hastings 1930, cited by Osburn 1953, Powell 1971, McCann et al. 2007). In 2004, it was abundant on the Caribbean coast of Panama (Ruiz et al., unpublished data), and was found on fouling plates in Paranagua Bay, Brazil (Cangussu 2008). This bryozoan is also established on the west coast of Africa, in Lagos, Nigeria on the Niger Delta, at Cotonu, Benin on the Gulf of Guinea, and at Moanda, Democratic Republic of Congo on the Congo River Delta (Cook 1968). 

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Description

Sinoflustra annae forms encrusting colonies. The zooids are rectangular in outline, and about 0.40-0.60 mm in length by 0.20-0.45 mm in width. The frontal area (opesia) is membranous and round to oval. At the distal end of the zooid, the operculum is bordered on each side by a pair of small, subtriangular kenozooids, resembling avicularia, but lacking mandibles, instead being frontally walled by membrane. Laterally and proximally, the membranous opesia is surrounded by a beaded cryptocyst, from the raised inner rim of which small sharp-pointed denticles extend under the membranous surface. There are no ovicells. The zooids may have large vicarious avicularia with rounded mandibles (description from McCann et al. 2007).

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Taxonomy

Ecology

General:

Life History- Sinoflustra annae is an encrusting, calcified bryozoan composed of many individual zooids. The zooids feed by extending the ciliated tentacles of the lophophore as a funnel, creating a current, and driving food particles into their mouths. The food is guided along the tentacles and through the pharynx by the cilia. Larger food particles can be moved or captured by flicking or contracting the tentacles (Barnes 1983). The mode of larval development of S. annae is unknown (McCann et al. 2007), but members of the family Flustridae have brooded, lecithotrophic larvae (Gordon et al. 2006). Larvae settle on a substrate, usually an alga, and metamorphose into the first zooid of a colony, an ancestrula (Dudley 1973; Barnes 1983).

Ecology- Sinoflustra annae is known primarily from pilings, buoys and fouling panels (Menon and Nair 1969; Powell 1971; Ruiz et al. unpublished data). It is often found in water of reduced salinities (Winston 1977; Swami and Karande 1994).

Food:

Phytoplankton

Trophic Status:

Primary Producer

PrimProd

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Habitats

General Habitat	Coarse Woody Debris	None
General Habitat	Marinas & Docks	None
General Habitat	Rocky	None
Salinity Range	Mesohaline	5-18 PSU
Salinity Range	Polyhaline	18-30 PSU
Salinity Range	Euhaline	30-40 PSU
Tidal Range	Subtidal	None
Vertical Habitat	Epibenthic	None

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Tolerances and Life History Parameters

Minimum Salinity (‰)	14	Field data- Bombay, India, in monsoon season, still abundant (Swami and Karande 1987, cited by Swami and Karande 1994)
Broad Temperature Range	None	Warm temperate-Tropical
Broad Salinity Range	None	Mesohaline-Euhaline

General Impacts

Sinoflustra annae is abundant in its native region and its invaded range, but specific ecological or economic impacts have not been reported.

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References

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