Invasion
Invasion Description
1st record: Oakland/CA/Lake Merritt (1921, Carlton 1979)
Geographic Extent
Oakland/CA/Lake Merritt (1921, Carlton 1979, Yee et al. 2019); Berkeley/CA/Aquatic Park Lagoon (1954, Carlton 1979); CA/Alameda Lagoons (1971, Carlton 1979); CA/San Rafael Creek (1970, Carlton 1979); CA/Corte Madera Creek (1970, Carlton 1979); CA/Palo Alto Yacht Harbor (1974, Carlton 1979); CA/Foster City Lagoons (1970, Carlton 1979); Marin County/CA/Belvedere Lagoons (Carlton 1979); Petaluma Turning Basin/CA/Petaluma River (1993, Cohen and Carlton 1995; 2004, Cohen et al. 2005); San Francisco Marina/CA/ \San Francisco Bay (2010, Marrafini et al. 2017); San Leandro Marina/CA/South San Francisco Bay (2004, Cohen et al. 2005; 2010, Marrafini et al. 2017); Port San Pablo/CA/San Pablo Bay (2004, Cohen et al. 2005); Napa Valley Marina/CA/Napa River (2004, Cohen et al. 2005); Moore's Landing/CA/Napa River (2004, Cohen et al. 2005); CA/San Francisco Bay (2012; 2014, 2015, Ruiz and Geller 2021); Santa Cruz/CA/Monterey Bay (2001, Yee et al. 2019); Moss Landing/CA/old Salinas River Channel, Elkhorn Slough (1994, 1998, Wasson et al. 2001; 2011, California Department of Fish and Wildlife 2014); Kirby Park/CA/Elkhorn Slough (1998, Wasson et al. 2001); Hudson Landing/CA/Elkhorn Slough (1998, Wasson et al. 2001)
Vectors
| Level | Vector |
|---|---|
| Alternate | Hull Fouling |
| Alternate | Ballast Water |
Regional Impacts
| Ecological Impact | Habitat Change | |
| Ficopomatus enigmaticus was first noticed in Lake Merritt, San Francisco Bay, when large reefs of worm-tubes were discovered. Ecological impacts of these reefs have not been studied and the abundance of worms is now lower than in the early 20th century (Carlton 1979; Cohen and Carlton 1995). Ficopomatus reefs are also spreading in Elkhorn Slough. These reefs support higher densities of organisms than native oyster reefs, predominantly non-native species (Heiman et al. 2008). | ||
| Ecological Impact | Competition | |
| Transplant experiments indicate that competition with Ficopomatus enigmaticus may limit growth and abundance of the introduced bryozoan Conopeum chesapeakensis at the more saline end of Carquinez Strait in the San Francisco estuary (Benicia, ~21 PSU, Newcomer et al. 2018). | ||