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Unravelling regional patterns of marine introductions into Spanish coastal waters: a preliminary approach using molluscs and polychaetes as a study model

2016; Frontiers Media; Volume: 3; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3389/conf.fmars.2016.05.00031

2296-7745

Richter Alexandra, Menor-Carbajal Araceli, López Eduardo,

Parasite Biology and Host Interactions

Event Abstract Back to Event Unravelling regional patterns of marine introductions into Spanish coastal waters: a preliminary approach using molluscs and polychaetes as a study model Alexandra Richter1*, Araceli Menor-Carbajal1 and Eduardo López2 1 University of Oviedo, Spain 2 Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain A series of studies have revealed an exponential increase with time in the number of marine organisms introduced by human activities into marine coastal waters and estuaries outside their native distributions. Given the potential harm that introduced species may cause to the recipient environment, measurements to prevent new introductions or eradicate already introduced species must be undertaken. However, to develop effective management strategies against biological invasions, first the problem itself must be identified - the introduced species must be detected and correctly identified – and second, the introduction pathway, source of introduction and the stage the introduced species have reached in its invasive process must be assessed correctly. The main goal of the present work is to analyse regional patterns of marine introductions into coastal waters of the Iberian Peninsula in order to unravel hot spots of introductions and detect eventual regional trends in the invasion processes and introduction mechanism. The intertidal and shallow subtidal of estuaries, ports, marine lagoons and open shore coastal waters of the Spanish Iberian Peninsula were considered. As target group, benthic molluscs and polychaetes were selected, because they are highly diverse from an ecological, reproductive and taxonomical point of view. Both groups also include species that currently are expanding fast causing important ecological impacts. Besides, in the case of molluscs, the native fauna is quite well known, although cryptogenic species are relative abundant in the group formerly known as opistobranchs and in micromolluscs. An extensive literature have been revised in order to elaborate an updated checklist of introduced species following strict quality criteria previously proposed by experts. According to these criteria species reported in grey literature were not considered in the analysis. Also species which were more likely expanding their distribution range or reported as introduced without a description, explanatory figure, expert confirmation and/or without adding information of deposited vouchers were excluded. Old first records of allochthonous species never again confirmed in the past 20 years were also excluded. Stages in the invasion process reached by the introduced species were assessed by applying the criteria of the unifying conceptual framework for biological invasions proposed recently by Blackburn et al (2011). Considering the Mollusca, the study revealed 34 introduced species; most of them were gastropods (67%), followed by bivalves (32%) and chitons (6%) in concordance with their species richness. At a national scale, around 61% of the species were casual, while 24% had established self-sustainable reproductive populations and ca. 15% were established and spreading far beyond the limits of first introduction and occupying ecological different environments. However, a regional trend was observed in the establishment success of the species and in the number of introduced species. The Bay of Biscay accumulated the largest number of introduced species (around 85%) followed by the North West coast of Spain (ca. 54%) and the East coast of Spain (47%). The least number of introduced species were detected in the Alborán Sea and SW Spain. In all the regions, the number of introduced species was reduced when compared to previously reported numbers, because many species resulted to be range extensions, native species or misidentifications. For example, in the Bay of Biscay, Crassostrea virginica were reported recently as introduced (Arias et al. 2012) but comparison with museum collection revealed that it was a misidentification of Crassostrea gigas or of its hybdrids with Crassostrea angulata (A. Richter pers. observations). Concerning the establishment success, species that at least had established self-sustainable reproductive populations reached high proportions in the Alborán Sea (75%), in NW Spain (ca. 59%) and in the Bay of Biscay (48%), while 31% in the East coast of Spain. The underlying causes to these regional differences may be a combination of factors and have still to be find out. Preliminary results point out that in the North Atlantic coast of Spain and East coast of Spain an important driver of marine introduction are aquaculture activities (mainly oyster and mussel culture and trade) which not only act as introduction pathways of aquaculture target species and accompanying species but also facilitate the establishment and spread of species introduced by other pathways. Regarding Polychaeta, difficulties were faced when trying to assess their stages in the invasion process and when trying to determine if new reports were introductions of alien species. During the last 20 years, 85 species of the group belonging to different regions were cited in the Iberian Peninsula. However, most of them are known only for their first record in this territory, have since then never been monitored or never again recorded again in the first locality. Out of these 85 species, only 27 were recorded in the most commonly cited checklists (Zenetos et al., 2012; Zorita et al., 2009) and at least three of them correspond to actual misidentifications, like for example Haploscoloplos kerguelensis McIntosh, 1885 (López, 2012) and Eunice cariboea Grube, 1856 (E. López pers. observation). In the rest of the cases, most resulted to be cryptogenic species that belonged to poorly studied or difficult to identify families (such as Syllidae and Spionidae, with 16 and 10 alien species respectively) or that had been collected from less explored ecosystems (continental slope interstitial environment). In conclusion, for a risk assessment of marine invasions in Spain the use of Polychaeta as a model is currently not adequate. However, here we highlight the urgent need of resolving the status of the cryptogenic species detected and the need of monitoring already introduced species considering the invasion risk and fast spread, in particular of bait worms or oyster biofoulers. References Arias, A., Richter A., Anadón N. (2012). “Estado actual de los Moluscos marinos no autóctonos en aguas del Cantábrico”. in Notas Científicas EEI 2012 4º Congreso Nacional sobre EEI, eds. GEIB Grupo Especialista en Invasiones Biológicas, 99–103. Blackburn, T. M., Pysek, P., Bacher S., Carlton, J. T., Duncan, R. P., Jarosik, V., et al. (2011). A proposed unified framework for biological invasions. Trends Ecol. Evol., 26(7), 333-339. López, E. (2012). “Familia Orbiniidae Hartman, 1942” in Annelida Polychaeta III. Fauna Ibérica Vol. 36., eds. M. A. Ramos et al. (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales/CSIC, Madrid), 96-160. Zenetos, A., Gofas, S., Morri, C., Rosso, A., Violanti, D. et al. (2012). Alien species in the Mediterranean Sea by 2012. A contribution to the application of European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Zorita, I., O. Solaun, I., Galparsoro, A., Borja. (2009). Especies exóticas en el medio marino del País Vasco, en relación con el cambio global. Informe para la Dirección de Biodiversidad de la Viceconsejería de Medio Ambiente. Gobierno Vasco. Gobierno Vasco: Pasaia. Keywords: invasion process, Mollusca, Polychaeta, introduction hot spots, Iberian Peninsula Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: 2. GLOBAL CHANGES, INVASIVE SPECIES AND CONSERVATION Citation: Richter A, Menor-Carbajal A and López E (2016). Unravelling regional patterns of marine introductions into Spanish coastal waters: a preliminary approach using molluscs and polychaetes as a study model. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00031 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 01 May 2016; Published Online: 02 Sep 2016. * Correspondence: Dr. Alexandra Richter, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain, richteralexandra@uniovi.es Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Alexandra Richter Araceli Menor-Carbajal Eduardo López Google Alexandra Richter Araceli Menor-Carbajal Eduardo López Google Scholar Alexandra Richter Araceli Menor-Carbajal Eduardo López PubMed Alexandra Richter Araceli Menor-Carbajal Eduardo López Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.