Bivalvia, Cyrenidae, Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774): new record, density, and population structure in the Teles Pires River, northern Mato Grosso, Brazil

Abstract

Corbicula fluminea is a very prolific invasive species around the world. In order to document the dispersal of this species in the Midwest Region of Brazil, we sampled 10 sites in the Teles Pires River in September 2006 and September 2012. We standardized the sampling effort by the number of drags, distance and size of the sieve. The average density of C. fluminea in 2006 was 6.36 individuals/m2 and 26.42 individuals/m2 in 2012. Corbicula fluminea is adapted to regional environmental characteristics such as climate, temperature and rainfall, and could become a problem in new hydroelectric dams that are setting up on site.

Current distribution of the invasive mollusk Corbicula fluminea (O.F. Müller, 1774) (Bivalvia, Cyrenidae) in Brazil, including a new record from the state of Piauí

“…As verified in our research, the greatest number of occurrences are in lotic environments in Brazilian territory. This is expected and deserves attention as running waters have a greater capacity to easily disperse these bivalves to new areas (Poleze and Callil 2015;Rosa and Dantas 2020). Similarly, the greater occurrence number in natural environments, whether lotic and lentic, indicate significant stress on native fauna, considering environmental changes caused by high population densities of C. fluminea, as discussed by Sousa et al (2008), Stuff (2011), andSazima andD'Angelo (2013).…”

“…This is especially true for Corbicula fluminea (O.F. Müller, 1774) (Sousa et al 2008), a species originally from Southeast Asia and currently found on all continents (Poleze and Callil 2015;Gama et al 2017). The first occurrence of C. fluminea in Brazil was recorded in the Rio Grande do Sul state in 1979 (Veitenheimer-Mendes 1981) and, since then, it has been recorded in all major hydrographic basins of the country (Santana et al 2013).…”

“…Corbicula fluminea presents high invasive potential and adaptive success in new environments due to rapid growth, early sexual maturation, short life cycle, high tolerance to different abiotic conditions, and dispersal ability. Corbicula fluminea is commonly dispersed through birds (but also through other animals), water streams, or by human action (such as ballast water, sand transportation, and fishkeeping) (Poleze and Callil 2015;Gama et al 2016;Gomes et al 2016). These features make C. fluminea one of the main agents responsible for economic losses in hydroelectric and water treatment plants.…”

First record of the Asian clam Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774) (Bivalvia: Cyrenidae) at Poxim-Açu River, northeastern Brazil

“…In South America, this species was first recognized around the 1970s in the Rio de la Plata estuary (Ituarte, 1981). Veitenheimer-Mendes (1981) recorded C. fluminea for the first time in Brazil, and since then several works showed its dispersion in the south (Mansur & Garces, 1988), southeast (Avelar, 1999;Suriani et al, 2007;Vianna & Avelar, 2010;Lima, 2017), central-west (Callil & Mansur, 2002;Poleze & Callil, 2015) and north (Beasley et al, 2003;Pimpão & Martins, 2008) regions of the country. The species was also recorded in the northeastern region along São Francisco River (Santana et al, 2013).…”

“…The establishment of non-native species is often favored by human disturbances such as the construction of reservoirs for either hydropower generation or water supply for human consumption, which changes environmental conditions and makes vulnerable aquatic ecosystems more susceptible to invasion (Poleze & Callil, 2015). Coincidentally, this record of C. fluminea occurs just after the building of a dam situated a few kilometers upstream the sampling sites.…”