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

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify potentially invasive non-native freshwater fishes in the middle reach of the Yarlung Zangbo River, Tibetan Plateau (China), using the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit (AS-ISK), as decision-support tool. Based on independent evaluations of 24 non-native freshwater fishes, receiver operating curve analysis identified a threshold score of ≥29 for distinguishing species likely to pose a high risk of becoming invasive from species likely to pose low-to-medium risk (<29) in the risk assessment area. Nine species were categorized as "high risk": goldfish Carassius auratus, topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva, brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis, Oriental weatherfish (a.k.a. dojo gudgeon) Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, Siberian taimen Hucho taimen, common carp Cyprinus carpio, peled Coregonus peled, western mosquitofish Gambusia affinis, and Chinese rice fish Oryzias sinensis. The three lowest scoring species were Arctic cisco Coregonus autumnalis, Wuchang bream Megalobrama amblycephala, and Chinese ice fishNeosalanx taihuensis, which are unlikely to be invasive because they are unable to complete their life cycle in the risk assessment area. Climate change assessments scores increased or remained the same for warm-water species and decreased for coldwater species. This study was the first application of AS-ISK in western China, and the results suggest that AS-ISK is a useful and valid tool for identifying potentially invasive risk aquatic species in China.

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

“…Therefore, special laws and regulations on introduction, aquaculture, storage and transportation of non‐native species must be developed to prevent and control invasion, and a scientific evaluation system to monitor non‐native species, such as a non‐native biological intrusion information system, is recommended. In China, the focus of control of non‐native species has so far been too concentrated on the quarantine of pests and diseases, and risk assessment has been ignored until recently (Bai, Chisholm, Sang, & Dong, ; Li, Chen, Wang, & Copp, ). The strongest factor associated with the settlement of non‐native species in the middle and downstream portions of the Pearl River was aquaculture (Gu et al, ).…”

Identifying potentially invasive non‐native marine and brackish water species for the Arabian Gulf and Sea of Oman

“…FishBase; http://www.fishbase.org; cf. Bilge, Filiz, Yapici, Tarkan & Vilizzi, ; Glamuzina et al, ; Li, Chen, Wang, & Copp, ; Tarkan, Sarı, İlhan, Kurtul, & Vilizzi, ; Tarkan, Vilizzi, et al, ; Zięba, Vilizzi, & Copp, ), this study adopted an ‘integrated approach’ to determine the a priori invasiveness status of species in all other aquatic organism groups (other than freshwater and marine fishes and lampreys, as identified in AS‐ISK) due to the more limited information available.…”

At what spatial scale should risk screenings of translocated freshwater fishes be undertaken - River basin district or climo-geographic designation?

“…Note that in the case of crucian carp Carassius carassius, the RA area encompasses all parts of GB because a recent genetic study has demonstrated that this species was most likely introduced about the same time as common carp Cyprinus carpio, and therefore is most likely 'not native' to southeast England as was previously believed by some scientists (Jeffries et al, 2017). A similar approach, encompassing both extant and potential future species, has been used in all published applications of AS-ISK on freshwater fishes to date (i.e., Glamuzina et al, 2017;Li et al, 2017; and in most previous applications of FISK (see Copp, 2013), as this provides a means of assessing current species, which may or may not have expressed invasive patterns. It also represents a horizon-scanning function to aid in the identification of possible future invasive species (Copp et al, 2009;Copp, 2013).…”

“…The AS-ISK is fully compliant with the 'minimum standards' (Roy et al, 2018) for assessing species under the new EU Regulation on invasive alien species of EU concern (European Union, 2014). AS-ISK has already been used successfully to screen non-native fishes in at least three risk assessment (RA) areas, including translocated species in: China (Li et al, 2017),…”