Biological invasions and climate change are among the main threats to biodiversity. In a climate change scenario, native species face greater difficulty adapting to new environmental conditions, while invasive species adapt more easily. In the case of C. fragile (an invasive species), rising temperatures increase its growth potential and enhance its competitive ability. Being a cryptic species—morphologically identical to its native congener, C. tomentosum—C. fragile can go unnoticed in ecosystems for long periods. Although C. fragile is classified as an invasive species, it coexists with C. tomentosum along our coasts, and its invasive potential remains unclear.
In this context, Ana García, under the supervision of Rosa María Vello García and Brezo Martínez Díaz-Caneja (URJC), is developing her doctoral thesis (Determinant Factors of Contractions and Expansions in the Distribution of Coastal Founding Species: Improving Predictions under Climate Change Scenarios). The main objective is to identify the biotic and physical factors that determine the distribution ranges of a contracting species (Fucus serratus) and an expanding species (Codium fragile), with the aim of improving predictions of species distributions under climate change scenarios.
On Thursday, April 20, Ana García, a doctoral student at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), presented part of her thesis results in the talk titled “Is Codium fragile spp. fragile an invasive species along NW Spain?” During this lecture, Ana presented the results of several experiments conducted at ECIMAT under the supervision of Celia Olabarria (Coastal Ecology group), focusing on the population dynamics of the two Codium species along the northwest coast of Spain and on the competitive interactions between them.
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For more information about the work presented, you can read the article published on the ECIMAT blog, “Another Invasive Species on Our Coasts? The Case of Codium fragile subsp. fragile.”
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