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

e considered nonindigenous based on their recent arrival in an area or by possessing
other attributes of nonindigenous species. Our convention to naming provisional species
was to append a citation from a major publication to the provisional species’ name. For
example, “Bryopsis sp. (Cohen and Carlton, 1995)” is a provisional species from the
Cohen and Carlton (1995) report. By appending the citation to the species, it becomes
possible to find a major source for the species. Appending the citation also avoids the
problem of having different provisional species with the same name from different areas,
as can happen when a letter or number is used as a suffix (e.g., Bryopsis sp. A). When
known, the person originally identifying the provisional species is listed as the taxonomic
authority, while the type locality is used to identify the general geographical area over
which the provisional name is applicable.
Species Profiles - Summarizing Distributions and Natural History
The environmental tolerance, habitat, and natural history characteristics of a species can help
predict the likelihood that it will invade an area and the possible consequences if an invasion
occurs. For example, salinity and depth ranges help define the range of habitats a new NIS could
potentially colonize. Trophic level, such as whether an invader is a suspension feeder or a
predator, can help predict likely ecological impacts. However, it is our opinion that species
attributes are underutilized in invasion ecology. As discussed in Reusser and Lee (2011), major
reasons for this underutilization include the lack of a standardized schema for such data and the
idiosyncratic manner in which such information are presented in the literature. One of the
objectives in designing the PICES database was to develop a practical hierarchical topology
using a class structure to effectively organize different types of habitat and natural history
attributes. An ancillary objective was to design a standardized two-page format for species
profiles that summarize the salient information about a species. With the use of the species
profile key (Figures 61 and 62) and the tables of abbreviations and definitions (Tables 1-12), a
user can determine the class or quantitative value for any of the attributes included.
The companion User’s Guide (Lee et al., 2012) provides additional details on the attributes
captured in the species profiles. Here we summarize key points important in interpreting the
information in the profiles. First, we provide both classes and quantitative values for a number of
habitat attributes (e.g., salinity, depth). However, the number of values going into the
quantitative ranges varies widely, from several hundred values to only a single number. Because
of this variation, the class values are generally more reliable than the quantitative ranges.
Second, three major classes are used to define the physical habitat of a species – Regime,
Ecosystem, and Substrate (see Tables 3, 4, and 5). Regime is a large scale classification of where
a species occurs (e.g., estuary vs. ocean); it does not define the specific habitat occupied.
Ecosystem is the overall ecosystem type that the species occupies, and it is embedded within the
Regime. For example, a species occurring in the estuary regime may occur in an unconsolidated
or consolidated ecosystem. Substrate classes define the specific substrate type a benthic species
lives in, which is embedded within the ecosystem. Infaunal organisms live in unconsolidated
sediment, which is an unconsolidated ecosystem. However, substrate type and ecosystem do not
have to match. Barnacles may inhabit the dead shells (a consolidated substrate) that accumulate
on the surface of sand flats (an unconsolidated ecosystem). Worms that live in the sediments that
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