BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Ecosystem Ecology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1641139
This article is part of the Research TopicBiological Invasions in Aquatic Ecosystems: Detection, Assessment and CountermeasuresView all 9 articles
Volatilome differences between native and invasive seagrass species in Caribbean area
Provisionally accepted
Amélie SAUNIER1,2*
Salomé Coquin1,2Laure Hannibal1,2Célia Ortole3
Benjamin de Montgolfier3
Caroline LECAREUX1,2
ELENA ORMENO1,2
Catherine FERNANDEZ1,2- 1Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- 2Institut Mediterraneen de Biodiversite et d'Ecologie Marine et Continentale, Marseille, France
- 3aquasreach, Rivière-Salée, France
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Biological invasions are one of the major threats to ecosystem services and biodiversity. Thus, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms involved in the invasion success of alien species. Besides generalist traits and high tolerance that enable persistence in novel environments, invasive species can use volatile chemicals compounds from specialized metabolism (BVOCs) to compete with native species, processes known as allelopathy. These compounds could contribute to invasions in marine environment, and the associated mechanisms need to be deciphered. The aim of this study was to characterize the volatilome (i.e. all BVOCs produced by a species) of two Caribbean native seagrass species (Syringodium filiforme and Thalassia testudinum) and one invasive (Halophila stipulacea). For that purpose, leaves samples were collected and BVOCs were trapped through HS-SPME followed by analyses in GC-MS. H. stipulacea's volatilome was significantly different from the two native species with the presence of compounds showing, in literature, allelochemical properties (e.g. geranyl acetone, 6-methyl, 5-hepten-2-one and cyclohexane isothiocyanate). We hypothesized that these compounds could be "novel weapons" to enhance the invasion success of H. stipulacea but it needs further investigations in laboratory (e.g. mesocosms) as well as in situ.
Keywords: BVOCs, seagrass, biological invasions, Allelopathy, Chemical weapon
Received: 04 Jun 2025; Accepted: 05 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 SAUNIER, Coquin, Hannibal, Ortole, de Montgolfier, LECAREUX, ORMENO and FERNANDEZ. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amélie SAUNIER, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
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