Barry SC

Statistical analysis Total length data Considering the hierarchical structure of our data with individual body size per species nested within each video station and each video station nested within each locality, we used Generalized Additive Mixed Effects Models (GAMMs) fit by REML (statistical packages “nlme” v. 3.1–157 and “mgcv” v. 1.8–39) (Barry & Welsh, 2002).

Statistical analyses Temporal (2013–2016) and spatial (R1, R2, R3) variation of the lionfish total length was compared using mean values ±95% confidence interval. In addition, for testing differences in lionfish mean length per year between regions, a Mann-Whitney U test was carried out except for the year 2015, for which a Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA by Ranks test was carried out because three regions were sampled that year.

Introduction Indo-Pacific red lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) were introduced to South Florida in the 1980’s and have since spread throughout the greater Caribbean showing exponential population growth throughout the invaded range (Betancur-R et al., 2011), with populations in the invaded range reaching greater densities than those of their native range (Kulbicki et al., 2012).