Ecology of marine invasions in continental Chile: What do we know and we need to know?

Abstract

The Chilean coast has fewer reports of introduced species for other shores worldwide, which could correspond to a natural phenomenon generated by oceanographic conditions, or an artifact caused by lack of available information. We analyzed 71 papers indexed in Web of Science related with ecology of marine invasions in the Chilean coast, published between 1998-2014, and we determined the current state of the discipline in Chile, and identified the trends (e.g., temporal, spatial, taxonomic) of the investigation. Most of the papers studied species naturalization stage, and very few deal with invasive species. The number of papers per year increases linearly with time, suggesting a growing interest of the scientific community in the study of the ecology of marine invasions. The amount of available information (i.e., number of publications) is not homogeneous among administrative regions, and most papers have examined specific sectors within each region (usually near the regional capital). Regions with high maritime traffic (e.g., Valparaíso, Magallanes) have been scarcely studied. With the exception of Coquimbo and Los Lagos, researches by region have been performed on a few taxa. Hardly any studies cover large spatial scales, although several of them do perform monitoring programs on longer time scales (e.g., monthly, yearly). Our results suggest that the number of exotic species in Chile may be underestimated. Field observations, periodic updating of catalogs and use of molecular tools are proposed as measures to achieve a greater understanding of the issue at national level.