Red swamp crayfish: biology, ecology and invasion - an overview

Abstract

-Alien species have been transported and traded by humans for many centuries. However, with the era of globalization, biological invasions have reached notable magnitudes. Currently, introduction of alien species is one of the major threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The North American crayfish Procambarus clarkii is one of the most widely introduced freshwater species in the world, especially due to its high economic importance. It is responsible for great modifications in invaded environments causing irreparable ecological and economic damages. Its impressive ability to successfully colonize a wide range of environments is a consequence of its behavioural and biological characteristics that can adapt to features of the invaded location, conferring to this species a notable ecological plasticity. This review summarizes the available information regarding P. clarkii's biology and invasive dynamics around the world in order to contribute to the understanding of the threats posed by its establishment, as well as to support management and impact mitigation efforts.

Burrowing Invasive Species: An Unquantified Erosion Risk at the Aquatic‐Terrestrial Interface

“…Several crustacean species of global interest are known to dig burrows into river banks, including a number of freshwater crayfish: spiny cheek crayfish ( Orconectes limosus ), virile crayfish ( Orconectes virilis ), red swamp crayfish ( Procambarus clarkii ), and signal crayfish ( Pacifastacus leniusculus ). For some species the biological motivation for burrowing behavior has been established (e.g., reproduction; P. clarkii ; Loureiro et al, ), while for others burrowing appears to be a characteristic unique to invaded ecosystems and motivations are less clear (e.g., P. leniusculus ; Guan, ; Holdich, ; Table ). Crayfish burrow architecture is often simple, comprising single openings with tunnels enlarging to a terminal chamber, although more complex architectures with multiple entrances have been observed (Correia & Ferreira, ).…”

Emotional behavior in aquatic organisms? Lessons from crayfish and zebrafish

“…Mostly nocturnal and crepuscular species (Holdich, ), their locomotion is characterized by short peaks of intense crawling alternated with periods of low mobility (Anastácio et al, ; Aquiloni, Ilhéu, & Gherardi, ; Francesca Gherardi & Barbaresi, ; Gherardi, Barbaresi, & Salvi, ). In particular, crayfish ( Procambarus clarkii) is an omnivore species that feeds on plant and animal detritus, macrophytes and small live animals (e.g., molluscs, insects, annelids, nematodes, platyhelminthes, tadpoles and fingerlings) (Loureiro, Anastácio, Araujo, Souty‐Grosset, & Almerão, ). The genome of this species contains nearly 137 thousand genes and 152 thousand predicted exons, ranging from 150 to 12,807 bp in length (Shi, Yi, & Li, ).…”

Variable effects of an invasive species on the reproduction and distribution of native species in pond networks

“…Furthermore, the functional response of a predator (the relationship between prey consumption by a predator and prey density, Holling, 1965) can itself be significantly affected by environmental characteristics and prey availability (Kratina, Vos, & Anholt, 2007;Lipcius & Hines, 1986). Since the red swamp crayfish is an omnivorous generalist (Loureiro, Anastácio, Araujo, Souty-Grosset, & Almerão, 2015), predation on amphibian larvae could be much lower in very productive ecosystems (see Supporting Information Table S1 for partial data on the rich aquatic communities we recorded). Finally, an ontogenetic shift in the diet of the red swamp crayfish has been documented, and more specifically, juveniles tend to be more predatory than adults (Correia, 2003), although this difference was less clear elsewhere (Alcorlo and Baltanás, 2013).…”