Understanding and forecasting dispersal of non-indigenous marine decapods (Crustacea: Decapoda) in East European and North Asian waters

Abstract

A survey of publications and collections databases reveals a pattern of non-indigenous decapods distribution in the 13 seas around Russia and adjacent countries. No alien species were reported from Russian territorial waters and exclusive economic zone in the Japan, Okhotsk, west Bering and most of the Siberian shelf Seas. From the seas and their basins in East Europe, 13 alien species have been recorded, with seven of these yet to become established. Established or commonly occurring species can be categorized as: ‘global invaders’ (Chinese mitten crab,Eriocheir sinensisin the White, Baltic, Black, Azov and Caspian Seas; and Harris mud crab,Rhithropanopeus harrisiiin all mentioned seas, except the White Sea); ‘regional aliens’ (Palaemon adspersusandP. elegansin the Caspian Sea and the latter species in the Baltic); and ‘Arctic invaders’ (Kamchatka king crabParalithodes camtschaticusand snow crabChionoecetes opilio).Eriocheir sinensisis the most widely occurring alien decapod species, but there are no indications of an established population in East Europe. For this and other mentioned crab species, invasion history, distribution and important biological data are reviewed. In the seas where few or no native crab species have been present, Harris mud crab (in the Azov and Caspian Seas), Kamchatka crab (in the Barents Sea) and snow crab (in the Barents and Kara Seas) have shown rapid establishment (within two decades) of an invasive population throughout an entire basis or its significant part.

Editorial: Introduced species challenges and opportunities for marine conservation ecology and management practices: Notes inspired by a recent MSC certification

“…On the other hand, the Norwegian approach aims to prevent any spread of the red king crab further west than 26°E and any further southwards (Sundet & Hoel, ), in accordance with the requirements of the Convention on Biodiversity. In Russian waters the migratory species P. camtschaticus appears to reach its natural limits of distribution, determined by its life‐history constraints in relation to oceanographic conditions and shelf geomorphology (Spiridonov & Zalota, ). There are several case studies showing the impact of the red king crab population on benthic communities, although this is highly variable from location to location, and tends to become more pronounced in semi‐closed fjords on soft substrates rather than on the hard bottom on more exposed coasts (Britayev, Rzhavsky, Pavlova, & Dvoretskij, ; Deart, Antokhina, Spiridonov, & Rzhavsky, ; Oug, Sundet, & Cochrane, ; Spiridonov et al, ).…”

“…In the last decades, an expansion of the snow crab ( Chionoecetes opilio ) has occurred in the central and eastern Barents and the Kara seas (Figure ), including the coastal waters of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, over a much larger area than the distribution range of the red king crab (Spiridonov & Zalota, ; Sundet & Bakanev, ). It was argued that the introduction took place from the north‐west Atlantic between the early 1980s and the early 1990s from ballast water discharges (Pavlov, ; Strelkova, ), although natural expansion via the Siberian shelf margin is still considered as an alternative hypothesis (Sundet & Bakanev, ).…”

“…When switching from the Arctic region with few introduced species (Kudersky, ; Spiridonov & Zalota, ) to one of the globally most impacted basins, the Mediterranean (Boudouresque & Verlaque, ; Galil et al, ; Galil, Marchini, & Occhipinti‐Ambrogi, ; Goren, Galil, Diamant, Stern, & Lewitt‐Barmatts, ), an interesting case of another commercial decapod species, the blue crab ( Callinectes sapidus ), originating from the West Atlantic (Figure ), should be mentioned. When recent reports on established blue crab populations in estuarine areas across the Mediterranean became frequent, a logically consistent idea to convert a possible threat into a resource has been put forward (Mancinelli et al, ); however, few experts remember that the blue crab was already a big resource in the Mediterranean.…”

Identifying a network of priority areas for conservation in the Arctic seas: Practical lessons from Russia

“…Ice cover conditions and ocean circulation parameters are changing and these changes affect regional ecosystems. There are clear signs to that effect on the environmental side, such as dispersal of boreal species to the north (Fossheim et al, ; Hunt et al, ), biological invasions (Kudersky, ; Pavlov & Sundet, ; Spiridonov & Zalota, ) and sea ice habitat loss (Amstrup, Marcot, & Douglas, ; Moore & Huntington, ). Perhaps equally important, these changes lead to greater human presence in the region (Huettmann, ; Jørgensen et al, ; Wenzel et al, ).…”

Состав пищи креветки Palaemon adspersus Rathke, 1837 (Crustacea Decapoda, Palaemonidae) в Каркинитском заливе Чёрного моря в сентябре 2016 г.

“…В 1954-1956 гг., в процессе акклиматизации кефали в Аральском море, из Каспия P. adspersus случайно попал и в Арал, где его численность была высокой. В настоящее время в Аральском море он не встречается [3,10,14,25,27,28,31,32,33]. В Чёрном море это практически единственный промысловый вид креветок.…”