Historical Ecology and Invasion Biology: Long-Term Distribution Changes of Introduced Freshwater Species

Update of genetic information for the white-clawed crayfish in Spain, with new insights into its population genetics and origin

“…Some authors propose that the Iberian populations are the result of human translocations from northwestern Italy a few centuries ago (Grandjean and Souty-Grosset 2000;Grandjean et al 2002b;Fratini et al 2005;Trontelj et al 2005; among others). Thereafter, the artificial spread of the species by humans would have resulted in its present-day distribution (Clavero and Villero 2013). Other authors, however, consider the white-clawed crayfish to be the only crayfish species native to the Iberian Peninsula (Alonso 2012;Beroiz et al 2008;Diéguez-Uribeondo et al 2008;Matallanas et al 2011Matallanas et al , 2012Pedraza-Lara et al 2010;Santucci et al 1997).…”

“…It has been recently suggested (Clavero and Villero 2013;Clavero et al 2015) that this species was not present in the Iberian peninsula before the seventeenth century, a limit based on the absence of any reference to the species in the Relaciones topográficas survey ordered by Philip II (henceforth Relaciones) which was undertaken between 1556 and 1598 (Clavero and Villero 2013). The first written document known to the latter authors that mentions crayfish in Spain dates from 1775.…”

Experimental Evidence from Causal Criteria Analysis for the Effects of Common CarpCyprinus carpioon Freshwater Ecosystems: A Global Perspective

“…Finally, the higher outcome score for Spain (and, overall, for the whole Iberian Peninsula), in spite of carp being naturalized in the region, was mainly due to the species' rapid spread in recent decades brought about by river regulation and impoundments, and also facilitated by the Mediterranean climate conditions of the area. All of these factors have recently contributed to increased concerns about the severity of carp impacts (Almeida et al, 2013;Clavero and Villero, 2014), thereby fostering experimentation. Similar to Europe, the eastern dispersant C. carpio haematopterus (the Amur wild carp: Chistiakov and Voronova, 2009) is native to several parts of Asia but has been translocated across or introduced to several countries therein (Froese and Pauly, 2014).…”

Linking historical ecology and invasion biology: some lessons from European rabbit introductions into the new world before the nineteenth century

“…For example, in 1769 Daines Barrington proposed the hypothesis that sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) was not native to Britain (Barrington 1769), and this was followed by a debate in which, among other sources of information, historical documents were used (summarized in Rackham 1980). Similarly, historical documents suggest that the white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius italicus) was introduced in Spain in the eighteenth century (Clavero 2014;Clavero and Villero 2014), although it is currently the focus of several conservation initiatives, because it was previously thought to be native. In addition, long-term analyses of the progression of historical invasions can be relevant for understanding the invasion process, and the current range of invasive species.…”