Cothurnia limnoriae - NSCEP | US EPA - US Environmental ...

in the PICES database, the queries will require care and have certain limitations, as described in
Lee et al. (2012).
Maps of the 232 MEOW ecoregions plus our modifications are provided to assist users in
understanding the extent and boundaries of the ecoregions (Figures 1-23). In addition, all four
hierarchical MEOW levels can be viewed in the PICES database (Lee and Reusser, 2012) while
the User’s Guide (Lee et al., 2012) contains an appendix listing all the realms, regions,
provinces, and ecoregions along with their database identification numbers.
Taxonomic Scope of the Atlas
The taxonomic scope of our analysis includes fungi, protozoa, microalgae, macroalgae, marine
plants, fishes, and all macroinvertebrate groups. Bacteria, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals
were not included. Freshwater species that only incidentally occur in estuaries were excluded
(e.g., crayfish that are washed downstream after storms), though species that are primarily fresh
water but periodically occur in estuaries (e.g., New Zealand mud snails) were included. We also
excluded species that are primarily terrestrial, though species that occur in the supralittoral zone
and coastal dunes were included. We did not include tidal marsh plants (other than Spartina) in
part due to the difficulty in obtaining information on similar species in Asia.
Definitions for Species’ Invasion and Population Status
Species were assigned to one of six classifications regarding their origin – Native,
Nonindigenous, Cryptogenic, Transient, Unknown, or Conflict – at any of the four biogeographic
levels (realm to ecoregion). Criteria to evaluate whether a species is native or introduced were
developed by Chapman and Carlton (1991 and 1994), and these criteria are discussed in Lee et
al. (2012). The following definitions were used for these classifications in the Atlas and PICES
database:
Native: A species that occurs naturally in the area with no human intervention. Native
species have an evolutionary history within the area.
Nonindigenous: A species that has been introduced into an area through human activities,
whether accidently or on purpose. Other terms used include alien, aquatic nuisance
species (ANS), exotic, introduced, non-native, adventive, and naturalized. In the United
States, use of “invasive” is largely limited to invaders that have or are likely to cause
adverse ecological, economic, or human health impacts.
Cryptogenic: Cryptogenic species those that are not clearly native or introduced based on
current information. As originally defined by Carlton (1966), this term was to capture
uncertainty regarding a species biogeography and invasion history. However,
“cryptogenic” is increasingly used for species with taxonomic uncertainties, such as
sibling (cryptic) species or species complexes. To avoid mixing uncertainty over invasion
history with taxonomic uncertainty, we restricted the use of cryptogenic classifications to
locations where there is some evidence for invasion. Cryptogenic species were not
included in the NIS counts for regions and ecoregions..
4