Management actions against invasive species are usually most efficient during early stages of invasion. Monitoring for early detection is therefore part of many management plans. However, if monitoring efforts do not match suitable habitat areas, detecting the initial stages of an invasion may fail. We highlight this mismatch by assessing which areas have suitable habitats for an invasion of the cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii in the Baltic Sea, and compare these with the areas that are currently monitored for algal blooms. Establishment of this potential toxin-producer in the Baltic Sea could have serious socio-economic consequences for tourism and recreation, as well as fisheries and aquaculture in the coastal regions. We estimate the coastal areas of the eastern Gulf of Finland as the most suitable area for establishment because of low salinity and high summer seawater surface temperatures. The species is not yet reported in the Baltic Sea, but in the suitable-habitat areas indicated by our assessment, very little monitoring is currently being done. We suggest several lines of research and monitoring to increase the probability of early detection and better predictions for the future distribution of the species.
-The aim of the present study was to analyze if small-scale spatial variation of benthic diatom assemblages has consequences for biomonitoring. Benthic diatom samples were collected at one sampling site in a mesotrophic stream in Middle-Sweden from stone and plant (macrophytes and mosses) substrate. Our results showed that spatial variation of both the diatom species composition and the calculated bioindices were similar on both small (distance of centimeter) and medium (distance of decimeters) scales. Spatial variation was also similar on both studied substrates. This implies that it does not matter if a small or a larger area is sampled for biomonitoring as long as no major environmental factors impact certain sites systematically. Diatom assemblages and indices were signifi cantly different between substrates. Spatial variation did not contribute much to this variation, and variation on a slide was unimportant. These results confi rm earlier fi ndings that smallscale spatial variation is not a problem when using diatoms to detect anthropogenic impacts to a stream or lake.
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