Life Sciences Commons^™

Herbivore Impacts On The Invasive Marine Alga Grateloupia Turuturu, Emily Bishop, Carol Thornber

Senior Honors Projects

Invasive species have the ability to outcompete natives, and can create a monoculture if not mitigated by herbivores or some other mechanism. Limited information exists on the ecology of the invasive macroalga Grateloupia turuturu and how it is impacted by herbivores. Using laboratory mesocosm experiments, we investigated the ability of two invasive herbivore species common in Rhode Island, the snail Littorina littorea and Asian shore crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus, to control Grateloupia populations. In the first trial, Grateloupia was provided to a single herbivore (either Littorina or Hemigrapsus) or both herbivores together. Grateloupia controls were in the same mesocosms …