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The Introduced Green Alga Caulerpa Taxifolia Continues to Spread in the Mediterranean

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Abstract

The tropical green alga Caulerpa taxifolia in the Mediterranean has spread steadily since its introduction in 1984. At the end of 2000, approximately 131 km2 of benthos had been colonized in 103 independent areas along 191 km of coastline in six countries (Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Croatia and Tunisia). Large regions neighboring the invaded areas appear favorable to further colonization, and there is thus no reason to believe that spreading will slow down in the years to come.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Environnement Marin Littoral, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, 06108, Nice Cedex 2, France; Author for correspondence (e-mail

    Alexandre Meinesz, Thierry Thibaut, Danièle Chiaverini, Jean-Michel Cottalorda & Jean de Vaugelas

  2. Département d'Ecologie côtière, IFREMER, Centre de Brest, BP 70, 29280, Plouzané Cedex, France

    Thomas Belsher

  3. Laboratory of Benthos, Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, I. Mestrovica 63, 21000, Split, P.P. 500, Croatia

    Boris Antolic, Amor El Abed & Ante Zuljevic

  4. Institut National des Sciences et des Technologies de la mer (INSTM), 2025, Salammbô, Tunisia

    Karim Ben Mustapha

  5. Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, UMR CNRS 6540, Campus de Luminy, 13288, Marseille Cedex 9, France

    Charles-Francçois Boudouresque

  6. Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo e dell'Ambiente, Università di Pisa, Via A. Volta, 6, 56121, Pisa, Italy

    Francesco Cinelli

  7. Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Campus Universitaire, 1060, Tunis, Tunisia

    Aslam Djellouli

  8. Laboratorio di Ecologia Acquatica, Dipartimento di Scienze Botaniche, Università degli studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 38, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Carla Orestano

  9. Conselleria d'Agricultura i Pesca, C/. dels Foners, 10, 07006, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Antoni M. Grau

  10. Laboratory for Ecology and Systematics, Center for Marine Research, Obala Giordano Paliaga 5, 52210, Rovinj, Croatia

    Ljiljana Ivesa, Andrej Jaklin, Enric Massuti-Pascual & Nevenka Zavodnik

  11. Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo e dell'Ambiente, Università di Pisa, Via A. Volta, 6, 56121, Pisa, Italy

    Habib Langar

  12. ENEA Ente per le Nuove Technologie, l'Energia e l'Ambiente, Centro Ricerche Ambiente Marino, C.P. 224, 19100, La Spezia, Italy

    Andrea Peirano

  13. ICRAM Central Institute for Applied Marine Research, via di Casalotti, 300, 00166, Rome, Italy

    Leonardo Tunesi

Authors
  1. Alexandre Meinesz
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  2. Thomas Belsher
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  15. Andrej Jaklin
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  17. Enric Massuti-Pascual
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  20. Jean de Vaugelas
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  21. Nevenka Zavodnik
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  22. Ante Zuljevic
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Correspondence to Alexandre Meinesz.

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Meinesz, A., Belsher, T., Thibaut, T. et al. The Introduced Green Alga Caulerpa Taxifolia Continues to Spread in the Mediterranean. Biological Invasions 3, 201–210 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014549500678

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