Dispersal of invasive and native brine shrimps Artemia (Anostraca) via waterbirds

Abstract

North American brine shrimp Artemia franciscana have been exported worldwide since the 1950s for use in aquarium trade and fish farming. Aquaculture is expanding along the Mediterranean coast, leading to the release of A. franciscana into native Artemia populations. A. franciscana was first detected in 1981 in Portugal and has since spread to saltworks along the East Atlantic flyway used by shorebirds. Once A. franciscana becomes established in a locality, native Artemia tend to disappear. To test whether migratory shorebirds can disperse invasive and native Artemia between wetlands, we extracted Artemia cysts from feces and pellets collected at Castro Marim (Portugal) and Cadiz Bay (Spain) during southward migration. We found that large numbers of viable eggs of A. franciscana and native Artemia parthenogenetica were dispersed by Redshank Tringa totanus, Blacktailed Godwit Limosa limosa, and other shorebirds migrating through the Iberian Peninsula. This is the most extensive field demonstration to date that invertebrates can disperse readily via gut passage through birds.

Population dynamics of the brine shrimp Artemia persimilis Piccinelli & Prosdocimi, 1968 (Crustacea, Anostraca) in a hypersaline lake of the Central Pampa (Argentina)

“…As previously mentioned, it is thought that A. franciscana could be in geographical range expansion due to its great colonizing ability (Clegg & Gajardo, 2009), which may displace the native species (Green et al 2005). One possible limitation to A. franciscana's progress towards the south would be its lower tolerance to low temperatures (Amat et al 2004, Vignatti et al 2014, to the point that it was not recorded in the Great Salt Lake of Utah with temperatures below 3 °C (Wurtsbaugh & Gliwicz 2001).…”

“…This has caused some biological aspects of A. persimilis to be studied in the laboratory (Pastorino et al 2002, Mechaly et al 2004, Sato et al 2004, Medina et al 2007), but there is little information about its geographical distribution and its ecology under natural conditions. In addition, increasing knowledge about the biology of the species is an important aspect, as its geographical distribution could be in decline, because it has been proven that A. franciscana tends to displace native species of the places it colonizes (Green et al 2005) due to its higher phenotypic plasticity (Browne & Wanigasekera 2000, Clegg & Gajardo 2009, Vikas et al 2012.…”

High dispersal capacity of a broad spectrum of aquatic invertebrates via waterbirds

“…Adult ostracods have previously been shown to survive gut passage through bird guts in a captive experiment (Proctor et al, 1967). Eggs of brine shrimps (anostracans) and chironomid larvae have recently been shown to be transported internally by shorebirds (Green et al, 2005b;Green and Sµnchez, 2006). Viable nematodes and bdelloid rotifers were recovered previously from external surfaces of birds (de Guerne, 1888;Thienemann, 1950;Schlichting, 1960;Örstan, 1998), but not from faeces.…”

Distribution and conservation status of fairy shrimps (Crustacea: Anostraca) in the astatic soda pans of the Carpathian basin: the role of local and spatial factors

“…Anostracans are passive dispersers, mainly dispersed by wind (Vanschoenwinkel et al, 2008a) and waterbirds (Green et al, 2005). Amphibians (Vanschoenwinkel et al, 2008b) and insects (Beladjal and Mertens, 2009) can also act as vectors, while human-mediated dispersal occurs as well (Waterkeyn et al, 2010).…”