News from the western European invasion front
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1
MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Portugal
Invasive species are one of the main threats to aquatic biodiversity, being particularly serious in regions with high number of endemic and endangered fishes. Portugal has currently one of the highest numbers of non-native fishes per area in western Europe and the rate of species arrival is increasing. In this review, an updated status of non-native fishes is provided with recent trends of leading vectors and routes. Non-native fish component represents 31% of the freshwater fish diversity existing in the country, totaling 20 established species out of 28 introduced species. In the last decade, the non-native fish detection rate (a proxy of introduction rate) has been one new species in every two years. Most of the non-native fishes in Portugal are mainly from Central Europe and North America and were illegally introduced for sports fisheries. However, some recent records are also linked with the ornamental trade, from Asia, indicating an increase of this vector in fish introductions. The international drainages exhibit the highest number of non-native fishes due to prevalent invasion routes from Spain, although direct introductions to national drainages in spatially limited areas suggest new invasion routes caused by higher propagule pressure of leading vectors (fisheries and ornamental trade). Management options are presented in order to tackle this growing threat, namely risk assessment, enforcement and environmental education. Only a comprehensive and integrated approach at an Iberian level could reduce the current rate of non-native species arrival to this region and help us to preserve the Iberian freshwater fishes for future generations.
Acknowledgements
The Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) supported F. Ribeiro (SFRH/BPD/46761/2008) with a post-doctoral research grant, from the Programa Operacional Potencial Humano/Fundo Social Europeu (POPH/FSE).
Keywords:
alien species,
freshwater environments,
Iberian Peninsula,
Recreational fisheries,
ornamental fish
Conference:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Ecology, Conservation and Invasive Species
Citation:
Ribeiro
F
(2015). News from the western European invasion front.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2015.03.00128
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Received:
24 Nov 2015;
Published Online:
24 Nov 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Filipe Ribeiro, MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Lisboa, 1749-016, Portugal, fmvribeiro@gmail.com