This Guide provides descriptions and images for the identification of some common exotic species in San Francisco Bay, along with information on their life histories, invasion histories and distributions. It was created by Dr. Andrew Cohen at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, with support from the NOAA Restoration Center, NOAA Fisheries, the San Francisco Estuary Project and the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

We plan to expand the Guide to include all exotic marine and estuarine species on the Pacific Coast. Our goal is to support education and outreach efforts on exotic species; assist volunteer monitoring of exotic species, and the biological monitoring related to restoration projects; and make it easier for people to identify the organisms they encounter on the Pacific Coast.

 

Contents

Clicking on an image in the Species Gallery takes you to a web page for that species. There you will find the following information:

Scientific Name and Author

Scientific names consist of two parts: the genus (plural: genera), which is capitalized, and the species, which is not. Both are usually put in italics. The species name is the first name (subject to certain rules) that was published with a good description of the species, and unless an earlier published name and description is discovered in the literature the name will normally stick with the species. The genus name associated with it may change, however, as researchers reassess the evolutionary relationships between species, and group and regroup species within genera.

The person who first published the name of the species, and the date of publication, are given after the genus and species. If the name and date are in parentheses, then the species was originally placed in a different genus than the one currently used.

Common Names

Both "official" and unofficial common names are listed.

Taxonomy

The taxonomic groupings above the genus level are listed next. The main levels of organization are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order and Family in the animal kingdom, though intermediate levels (e.g. Subclass, Superorder) are included where appropriate. In the plant kingdom, Division is used instead of Phylum. The information given here is based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), modified in a few cases by more recent information.

Description

The first (unlabeled) text section provides a physical description of the species along with information on its life history, environmental tolerances, impacts and control efforts.

Scientific descriptions of species often rely on a crushing load of obscure taxonomic terminology. I have tried to minimize the use of such terminology, and to define each specialized term when it is first used on a species page. For some species I describe the structure, feeding behavior, etc. of the organisms when this is needed to make sense of the species description.

Similar Species

This section provides a brief description of similar species on the Pacific Coast, noting the characteristics that distinguish them.

Native Range

The native range of the species is given if known.

Introduction and Distribution on the Pacific Coast

The distribution of established populations is given in a bulleted list from Alaska to Baja California. Where known, the year of the first record of the species in the wild at each listed site is given in square brackets. If the record refers to the date when the species was first collected or observed, this is stated (e.g. "[collected in 1950]" or "[observed in 1937]"). If the record is a document that doesn't explicitly state when the species was collected or observed, then it is listed as reported in the year of publication (e.g. "[reported in 1985]"), or if an unpublished document, then the year in which it was written.

Additional distribution information is provided in the text following the bulleted list, including details of distribution within San Francisco Bay or other Pacific Coast sites, records of collection at sites where the species is not established, and records at a site but not in the wild (e.g. in captivity, or intercepted in oyster shipments; such not-in-the-wild records are not included in the dates of first record in the bulleted list). This text also includes the Pacific Coast invasion history, an assessment of the mechanism of introduction to the coast, and the pattern and mechanism of spread along the coast.

Additional Global Distribution

This provides less-detailed information on distribution in other regions.

Other Scientific Names

This is a partial list of other scientific names that have been used for the species. More complete lists (known as synonymies), with author and publication date, are provided by some scientific articles and monographs.

Sources and Additional Information

The last two sections list the citation information for the documents and websites that were used to write the descriptions or that provide additional information or images.

Images

The images show the form and habitat of the species, its range of variation in shape and color, and similar species that it might be confused with. The captions mainly describe the identifying characteristics. Clicking on any image opens a larger version of the image.

The photo credit under the image provides the name of the photographer and/or institution that owns the image. Information on how these images may be used, and contact information for the owners of the images, are provided in About The Images.

 

How to Cite this Guide

Cohen, Andrew N. 2005 Guide to the Exotic Species of San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco Estuary Institute, Oakland, CA  www.exoticsguide.org

 

Acknowledgments

I'm grateful to the organizations that provided the funding and other contributions to develop this guide, and for the help and support of the project managers including Natalie Cosentino-Manning at the NOAA Restoration Center, Brian Mulvey at NOAA Fisheries Southwest Region, Marcia Brockbank at the San Francisco Estuary Project, and Jaime Kooser at the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

My sincere thanks also to the generous individuals and institutions, listed in About The Images, who contributed photographs; with special thanks to Luis Solórzano for photographing the organisms collected by the 2004 San Francisco Bay Rapid Assessment Survey. Many people reviewed the draft website and provided comments, which included finely detailed and helpful comments from Gretchen Lambert, Jim Carlton, Daphne Fautin, Sylvia Yamada and Amiko Mayeno.

Finally, I want to thank Linda Wanczyk, Andreas Schueller and Michael May of SFEI's Information Technology program for their time and skills in getting the guide up and running on the web.

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