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Absolute estimates of the propagule pressure of viable dinoflagellates across Canadian coasts: the variable influence of ballast water exchange

  • Invasive Species - Original paper
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Abstract

Estimates of propagule pressure in invasion biology are often unavailable due to widespread use of proxy variables, leading to uncertainty in absolute introduction effort of marine non-indigenous species (NIS). We present a first estimate of absolute propagule pressure (probability distributions of the total number of individuals introduced per release event and per year) for viable non-indigenous dinoflagellates transported via commercial vessels to major ports on the East and West coasts of Canada, thereby establishing a baseline metric against which to test future hypotheses about factors controlling invasion rates. To quantify the influence of ballast water management on absolute propagule pressure, three shipping routes were evaluated: (1) transoceanic with mandatory ballast water exchange (BWE), (2) coastal with BWE, and (3) coastal without BWE. Results provide insufficient evidence that BWE consistently reduces propagule pressure of dinoflagellates in ballast tanks. Moreover, controlled growth experiments confirmed that several dinoflagellate species were viable (e.g., capable to reproduce) following their release from arriving vessels, including those conducting exchange. We caution that the ecological significance of these findings is unclear without a better understanding of the factors that allow offshore dinoflagellates to establish in nearshore marine environments; however, several dinoflagellates NIS may have the potential to become established in Canadian coastal marine ecosystems following ballast water exchange.

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Acknowledgments

We thank shipping companies, crews, and port authorities whose support facilitated the sampling of ballast tanks. We are grateful to the sampling teams on both coasts and to Sylvie Lessard for taxonomic assistance. Finally, we thank Editor and reviewers for insightful discussion and comments that improved the manuscript.

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian aquatic Invasive species Network (CAISN), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Québec-Océan, and the Institut de sciences de la mer de Rimouski (ISMER)—Université du Québec à Rimouski.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada

    Oscar Casas-Monroy

  2. Institut des sciences de la mer, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 300 allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada

    Marie Parenteau, Suzanne Roy & André Rochon

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada

    D. Andrew R. Drake

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  1. Oscar Casas-Monroy
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Correspondence to Oscar Casas-Monroy.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Responsible Editor: E. Briski.

Reviewed by G. M. Hallegraeff and an undisclosed expert.

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Invasive Species.

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Casas-Monroy, O., Parenteau, M., Drake, D.A.R. et al. Absolute estimates of the propagule pressure of viable dinoflagellates across Canadian coasts: the variable influence of ballast water exchange. Mar Biol 163, 174 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-2946-3

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