Poster

Abstract

Several non-native invertebrate and vertebrate species have been detected in the Guadiana estuary (SW-Iberian Peninsula, Europe) during the 21st century, especially after the Alqueva dam construction. Detecting invasive species and assigning the time of introduction is particularly difficult in locations without a comprehensive list of native and non-native species. So far, eight non-native species were found, six invertebrate and two vertebrate species: i) Corbicula fluminea Müller, 1774, (Mollusca: Bivalvia) (Morais et al. 2009), ii) Palaemon macrodactylus Rathbun, 1902 (Crustacea: Decapoda), iii) Blackfordia virginica Mayer, 1910 (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) (Chícharo et al. 2009, Encarnação et al, 2013), iv) Maeotias marginata Modeer, 1791 (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) (Muha et al., 2013), v) Fundulus heteroclitus Linnaeus, 1766 (Pisces: Fundulidae) (Gonçalves et al., 2015), vi) Cynoscion regalis Bloch and Schneider, 1801 (Pisces: Sciaenidae) (Morais and Teodósio, 2016), vii) Cordylophora caspia  Pallas 1771 (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) (Seyer et al. 2017), viii) Mnemiopsis leidyi (Ctenophora: Tentaculata)(Agassiz, 1865 )(Cruz et al., in prep.). Most of the species, especially gelatinous species, were registered during our regular monitoring of the Southwest Iberia Site, an open Marine Ecological Time Series database, in the lower Guadiana estuary (http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/copepod/time-series/pt-30201/). The flow stability seems to facilitate introductions for different species while the natural flow regime, with low and high freshwater discharge, discourage invasions, as native biota as evolved in response to overall flow regime. An integrated management approach – i.e. freshets released from dams to control the populations– was proposed to minimize or mitigate the putative impacts of these species in the Guadiana estuary.

Short CV

Maria Alexandra Teodósio is a Professor in UALG and a Researcher in CCMAR, studying feeding ecology, from jellies to marine turtles, and the effects of global changes on marine ecosystems, namely freshwater discharges, gelatinous blooms, non-indigenous species and ocean acidification. She is one of the coordinators of Ecoreach research group of CCMAR: Ecology and Restoration of Riverine, Estuarine and Coastal Habitats, she is also a permanent member of the FWO, Flemish Research Foundation (Biodiversity and ecology committee) and an Associate Editor of the journal Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Science.

Atendance Certificate

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