Regional features of alien macroinvertebrate invasion into the water ecosystems of the Ob River basin

Abstract

The peculiarities of invasion of alien macroinvertebrates into the water bodies of the Ob river basin have been studied. It has been noted that the construction of hydropower plants and fishery management play the key role in the invasion of alien fauna. The main invasion corridors and the tendencies of long-term alterations in them have been revealed. The common and distinctive features of the alien fauna of the Ob River basin and the invasive species of large European rivers have been determined. It is shown that a considerable number of alien invertebrates have been introduced into the Ob river accidentally.

Aliens and Returnees: Review of Neobiotic Species of Freshwater Mollusks in Siberia from the Kazakhstan Steppe to the Arctic Tundra

“…Our understanding started to change in the first decade of the 21st century, when the first publications about the discovery of mollusk species new to the region in the water bodies of Siberia began to appear in the scientific literature. These species began to be found in modified water bodies: cooling reservoirs [1][2][3], long known as "foci" of aquatic invasions in northern latitudes; large artificial reservoirs (the Novosibirsk reservoir [4,5], the Bukhtarma reservoir [6]), and also natural watercourses [7]. The accumulating volume of information on this issue prompted Vinarski et al [8] to prepare a review paper summarizing all information about alien species of mollusks in Western Siberia, in which the authors also discussed climate and other features that prevent the introductions and invasions of non-indigenous species.…”

“…Since then, the volume of new information about aquatic mollusk species new to Siberia has grown significantly. In addition to the registration of new species in the malacofauna of Siberia and new localities of previously known species [11][12][13][14][15][16][17], there have been works devoted to the ecology of recent migrants in Siberian reservoirs [5,[18][19][20][21], as well as publications interpreting the problem from a broader point of view, in particular, raising the question of whether all newly registered species must be considered as "real" aliens, or whether one should rather speak about restoring a part of the original range once lost by some of these species, not about introductions and/or invasions in the commonly accepted sense of these terms [16,22].…”