The non-native copepod Oithona davisae (Ferrari F.D. and Orsi, 1984) in the Western Black Sea: seasonal and annual abundance variability

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“…similis and O. nana are the most common species in the Sea of Marmara, found both in upper and lower layers of this sea (Isinibilir et al, 2008;2011). O. davisae occurs only in the upper water layer of Sea of Marmara and can easily be differentiated from O. similis and O. nana (Figure 2 present in the western Black Sea (Mihneva and Stefanova, 2013). On the other hand, ballast waters may also act as an important vector in introduction of this species.…”

“…davisae inhabits eutrophic bays (Uye and Sano, 1995;Almeda et al, 2010) and is indigenous to Japan and China Seas, and other coastal areas (Hirakawa, 1988). It is an invasive species along the west coast of the US and is established in the Mediterranean (Saiz et al, 2003) and the Black (Mihneva and Stefanova, 2013) Seas. O. davisae had not previously been reported from the Sea of Marmara.…”

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“…davisae is regarded as the thermophilic species because its maximum population density occurs in warm seasons in natural system (T>20ºC; Uye and Sano, 1995;Nakane et al, 2008). The presence of O. davisae, which is a eurythermic species, in plankton was observed between 8.2-23.2ºC in the northern Black Sea and between 7.3-24.5ºC in the western Black Sea (Mihneva and Stefanova, 2013). In the present study, the species was found at temperatures ranging from 20.95 (September) to 12.53ºC (December).…”

“…It was demonstrated that the species which was identified as Oithona brevicornis in the Black Sea in 2001 (Zagorodnyaya, 2002), was actually O. davisae after re-examination of zooplankton samples of 2008 and 2011 (Temnykh and Nishida, 2012). As a result, although O. brevicornis (Zagorodnyaya, 2002;Altukhov and Gubanova, 2006;Gubanova and Altukhov, 2007;Selifonova, 2009;Altukhov, 2010;Timofte and Tabarcea, 2012) and O. davisae (Temnykh and Nishida, 2012;Mihneva and Stefanova, 2013;Altukhov et al, 2014;Svetlevich and Hubareva, 2014;Shiganova et al, 2015) are two different names for the same species in Black Sea, O. davisae is accepted as the correct name.…”

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“…In 2005 O. davisae was found in the north-western Black Sea (Selifonova 2011), and only in September 2009 it was registered along the Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea (Mihneva and Stefanova 2013). Small cyclopoids are the most abundant copepods (Gallienne and Robbins, 2001) and considered to be a suitable prey for the early fish larvae of numerous species (Turner, 2004;Islam et al, 2006).…”