Burrowing activity of Procambarus clarkii on levees: analysing behaviour and burrow structure

Abstract

The North American crayfish Procambarus clarkii is considered among the most invasive freshwater species. However, burrowing behaviour and the possible impact of P. clarkii on levees have not yet been studied in depth. To assess shape, volume and structure of its burrows and the associated behaviour, experiments were conducted introducing two sizematched adult crayfish into an artificial setup and video-recording their behaviour for 96 h. At the end of each replicate, casts of excavated burrows made with polyethylene foam were retrieved. Crayfish (n = 40) dug 17 burrows, six of which having an enlarged terminal chamber. The average excavated levee volume of burrows was 1.9% (0.00528 m 3 ; 5.0256 l) ± 0.86% of the total volume with a maximum of 4% (0.0109 m 3 ; 10.9 l) and the chambers (mean volume of 0.9 ± 0.6 dm 3) contributed to up to 50% of the excavated volume. No significant difference between sexes was found for any observed behaviour. Our study also demonstrated how P. clarkii female and male behaviours are similar for burrowing activity. As a result, we quantify the potential pressure exerted by the red swamp crayfish on levees and lastly highlight the observation of cooperating burrowing behaviour of male and female individuals in this species.

The recorded economic costs of alien invasive species in Italy

“…freshwater crayfish) were only anecdotally recorded in the database without identifiable species, given a distinct lack of cost estimation. Additionally, impacts associated with invasive crayfish species, such as levee damaging burrowing behaviour (Haubrock et al 2019), habitat engineering (Barbaresi et al 2004), in addition to direct impact on native biodiversity (Gherardi and Acquistapace 2007), were not present in the InvaCost database. This may be due to the cultural and financial benefits of introductions outweighing potential economic cost or the nature of ecological impact, leading to nonvalue costs, which are inherently harder to estimate (e.g.…”

The redclaw crayfish: A prominent aquaculture species with invasive potential in tropical and subtropical biodiversity hotspots

“…The globally widespread red swamp crayfish is an excellent and well-known representative, as documented mainly at first in Europe and North America itself Lodge et al 2012;Oficialdegui et al 2019a). Despite its economic significance, its recognition as an invasive species has gradually increased (Oficialdegui et al 2020b), mainly as a result of ecosystem-focused studies (Geiger et al 2005;Twardochleb et al 2013;Haubrock et al 2019). Its negative impacts on ecosystems became increasingly recognized elsewhere (Souty-Grosset et al 2016) including Africa (Ogada 2005;Gherardi et al 2011b;Nunes et al 2017a) and South America (Peir o et al 2016;Loureiro et al 2019).…”

SI on economic costs of invasions - Feeling the pinch: global economic costs of crayfish invasions and comparison with other aquatic crustaceans

“…In recent years, there have been signi cant advances in understanding the ecological impacts of IAS on recipient aquatic ecosystems (e.g. Jackson 2015; Dick et al 2017;Bradley et al 2019;Haubrock et al 2019b). Whilst frameworks for categorising invader socioeconomic impacts have advanced throughout the years in response to the challenges associated to monetizing socioeconomic impacts (Bacher et al 2018), the paucity of quanti ed costs incurred by invasions is weakening the rationale for policy makers to invest the sparse available resources toward prevention, control and eradication.…”

“…conducted and is inherently challenging in cryptic aquatic ecosystems(Kouba et al 2016;Haubrock et al 2019b). Further, ICS cause signi cant damages to hydraulic and irrigation systems, but information about the associated costs are largely missing(Tricarico et al 2018;Madzivanzira et al 2020).…”