Identification of potentially invasive freshwater fishes, including translocated species, in Turkey using the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit (AS-ISK)

Abstract

Screening tools are being increasingly used to identify more effectively non-native species that pose an elevated risk of being invasive. Of the available decision-support tools, the Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK) has been widely used, but has recently been replaced by a generic screening tool, the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit (AS-ISK), which is applicable to any aquatic species and complies with the minimum requirements for risk tools under the new EC alien invasive species Regulation. With its unique zoogeography and rich native fauna, Turkey is highly susceptible to non-native species' introductions and translocations. In order to inform non-native species policy and management regarding fishes in Turkey, AS-ISK was used to re-assess species previously screened using FISK and to assess additional non-native and translocated fish species. In this first calibration study of AS-ISK for Turkey, a basic score threshold of 28 was achieved, which reliably distinguished between potentially invasive (high risk) and potentially non-invasive (medium to low risk) fishes. Of the 64 species assessed, only one was ranked as 'low risk', 40 were categorised as 'medium risk', and the remaining 23 as 'high risk' of which five were translocated. Non-native species currently not present in Turkey, but that pose a high risk of being invasive, were Ameiurus melas, Ameiurus nebulosus, Hemiculter leucisculus, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Micropterus salmoides, Perccottus glenii, Pimephales promelas; whereas, the highest scoring translocated species were Cyprinus carpio, Esox lucius and Silurus glanis. When the potential effects of climate change on the assessments were considered, risk scores increased for some (sub)tropical fishes of which two are translocated species. K E Y W O R D SAnatolia, FISK, introduced species, non-indigenous, non-native, Thrace

Invasiveness screening of non‐native fishes for the middle reach of the Yarlung Zangbo River, Tibetan Plateau, China

“…The AS‐ISK assessments of NN fishes for the Yarlung Zangbo River revealed BRA and CCA threshold scores of 29 and 31, which are similar to those (both 28) recently calibrated for Turkey (Tarkan et al, ) but higher than those (10.0 and 12.6, respectively) for the trans‐Balkans River Neretva (Glamuzina et al, ) and the very low threshold score (−3.7) reported for Lake Marmara, West Anatolia, Turkey (Tarkan et al, ). Differences in threshold values in FISK screening kits are well documented (review in Copp, ), being attributed to the number of translocated species (Glamuzina et al, ; Simonović et al, ).…”

“…Intended as an enhanced replacement for the well‐established risk identification tool, the Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK; reviewed in Copp, ), AS‐ISK is compliant with the “minimum requirements” (Roy et al, ) for the assessment of NN species for the EC Regulation on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species (European Commission, ). As with FISK, AS‐ISK consists of 49 questions on life‐history traits, biology, ecology, biogeography, and history of introduction, and it is also complemented by additional six Climate Change Assessment (CCA) questions to predict how future climate conditions are likely to affect the AS‐ISK assessment with respect to risks of introduction, establishment, dispersal, and impact (Glamuzina et al, ; Tarkan, Sarı, İlhan, Kurtul, & Vilizzi, ; Tarkan et al, ).…”

“…For the RA area, 24 NN freshwater fish species were selected for AS‐ISK assessment based on the four criteria intended to assess potential future NN species within the context of existing NN species (Tarkan et al, ): (a) those translocated (i.e., native to other parts of China but not to the RA area) have not established self‐sustaining populations in the RA area (four species); (b) those already introduced to the RA area and have established self‐sustaining populations (six species); (c) those not yet present in the RA area but already invaded in the adjacent area (six species); and (d) those not yet present in the RA area but important for aquarium and aquaculture trade (eight species). Both intentionally and accidentally introduced species were included in our criteria.…”

“…Similar to Gordon, Onderdonk, Fox, and Stocker () and various FISK applications (reviewed in Copp, ), calibration of the AS‐ISK medium‐to‐high risk threshold for the RA area was undertaken by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis (Bewick, Cheek, & Ball, ) to assess the predictive ability of AS‐ISK, whereby the eventual purpose is to determine a threshold (or “cut‐off value”) to discriminate between potentially invasive and non‐invasive species (Glamuzina et al, ; Tarkan et al, , ). As per Copp et al () and subsequent applications of risk screening toolkits of the “‐ISK” type (reviewed by Copp, ), each species was assigned a priori classification as either “invasive” or “non‐invasive” with respect to their perceived threat to humans (invasive/non‐invasive) and to their IUCN Red List Status (not evaluated/least concern/vulnerable/near threatened) based on information in Fishbase (www fishbase.org…”

Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) invasions disrupt the functional patterns of fish community in a large subtropical river in China

“…For example, feral self-sustaining populations of Nile tilapia have established in most tropical and subtropical environments, including Lake Victoria and the River Limpopo system (Africa), water bodies in Pennsylvania and Mississippi (USA), and the Pearl River system in China (Canonico, Arthington, McCrary, & Thieme, 2005;Costa-Pierce, 2003;Zengeya, Robertson, Booth, & Chimimba, 2013). As a result, Nile tilapia has been classified as a "potential pest" (Simoes-Vitule, Freire, & Simberloff, 2009), and this species has been ranked as posing a moderately high-to-high risk in screenings for risk assessment areas in Europe (Almeida, Ribeiro, Leunda, Vilizzi, & Copp, 2013;Ferincz et al, 2016;Perdikaris et al, 2016;Piria et al, 2016), Asia (Kim, Vilizzi, & Copp, 2018;Tarkan et al, 2017) and peninsular Florida in North America (Lawson, Hill, Hardin, Vilizzi, & Copp, 2015).…”