Thousands of small, self-cloning sea anemones native to the Southern Hemisphere are rapidly spreading in Tomales Bay, an event researchers say could be the first recorded sighting of the species above the equator.After the anemone was reported last year through a citizen science app, iNaturalist, researchers at the University of California at Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory confirmed the species to be Anthopleura hermaphroditica, known as the small brown sea anemone. The striped anemone, which is less than an inch, is native to New Zealand, Australia and Chile.UC Davis researchers, led by doctoral student Keira Monuki, are contemplating how the species could affect the bay’s ecosystems.One of the reasons the anemones have spread so successfully in Tomales Bay is that they can reproduce asexually, said Eric Sanford, a UC Davis biology professor. A single sea anemone could make thousands of clones of itself.“They can proliferate rapidly because they don’t need another individual to reproduce. They can just spit out these genetically identical clones of themselves,” Sanford said. “So in a lot of ways, it’s something out of a science fiction movie if you’re thinking of what would be the perfect invader from outer space.”Sanford said genome sequencing will allow researchers to estimate how many anemones first colonized Tomales Bay. It is possible, he said, that the thousands of anemones matting the intertidal areas in eastern Tomales Bay came from just one or two individuals.The anemones also host a symbiotic algae that will be researched to determine if it influenced the species’ successful proliferation in Tomales Bay.Read More
