Bart Reeze, RIZA

Biological Invasions in Inland Waters

Invasive macroinvertebrates and the ecological quality of large rivers

B. Reeze, M. Greijdanus, A. bij de Vaate RIZA (The Netherlands)

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Invasions: where’s the party?5th May: liberation day

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Contents

• observations in river Rhine and Meuse• assessment macro-invertebrates European

Water Framework Directive (WFD)• discussion: how to deal with invasive

species?

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River Rhine and Meuse

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Invasions river Rhine

Abundance invasive species Lobith

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

1988 1989 1990 19911992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 19992000 2001 2002 2003

rela

tive

abun

danc

e

010.00020.00030.00040.00050.00060.00070.00080.00090.000100.000

abun

danc

e

nativeother invasiveC. curvispinumG. tigrinusJ. istriD. polymorphaD. villosusabundance

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Invasions river Meuse

Abundance invasive species Grave

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

rela

tive

abun

danc

e

0

5.000

10.000

15.000

20.000

25.000

30.000

35.000

40.000

abun

danc

e

nativeother invasiveC. curvispinumG. tigrinus

J. istriD. polymorphaD. villosusabundance

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Invasions: main stream vs. secundary channels

Presence and abundance of invasive speciesmain stream vs. secundary channels

0

20

40

60

80

100

species individuals

%

main streamsecundary channels

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Invasions observations

• mainly on hard substratum, up to 50% abundance on bottom substrates

• few species (25%) cover > 90% of abundance

• succession dominant species• mainly large rivers and lakes (till so far?)• hypothesis: habitat-diversity favours native

species

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Ecological quality: EuropeanWater Framework Directive

Benthic invertebrates = quality elementClassification waterbodies in 5 classes:• composition and abundance• deviance from type-specific communitites

(reference conditions)

Bart Reeze, RIZABiological Invasions in Inland Waters 10Assessment of

macroinvertebrates in the Netherlands

List of characteristic taxa (KM), dominant positive (DP) and dominant negative (DN) taxa per type

Classification based on 3 metrics:• negative dominant species (DN%, abundance)• characteristic species (KM%, taxa)• positive dominant and characteristic species (DP%+KM%,

abundance)

Recently (< 10 years) introduced invasive species do not belong to taxa lists

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Example

1 Calculate form species-list:• % dominant negative taxa (DN%, abundance)• % characteristic taxa (KM%, taxa)• % dominant positive and characteristic taxa (KM%+DP%, abundance)

metric value score DN % (abundance) ≥ 41 0,1 < 41 0,2 KM % (nr taxa) ≤ 7 0,1 > 7 - ≤ 17 0,2 > 17 - ≤ 32 0,3 > 32 0,5 KM %+DP % (abundance) < 5 0,1 ≥ 5 - < 25 0,2 ≥ 25 0,3

2metric value score DN % (abundance) ≥ 41 0,1 < 41 0,2 KM % (nr taxa) ≤ 7 0,1 > 7 - ≤ 17 0,2 > 17 - ≤ 32 0,3 > 32 0,5 KM %+DP % (abundance) < 5 0,1 ≥ 5 - < 25 0,2 ≥ 25 0,3

2

total score class ≤ 0,3 bad

> 0,3 - < 0,6 poor ≥ 0,6 - < 0,8 moderate ≥ 0,8 – ≤ 0,9 good > 0,9 – ≤ 1,0 high

3total score class ≤ 0,3 bad

> 0,3 - < 0,6 poor ≥ 0,6 - < 0,8 moderate ≥ 0,8 – ≤ 0,9 good > 0,9 – ≤ 1,0 high

3

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Impact of invasive species

Invasive species have an effect on the assessment results:

• by their high relative abundance• by diminishing the chance of being found for

other (characteristic) species

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Impact of invasive species: groups

R7 R8 R16

no impact, densities too lowDendrocoelum romanodanubiale Turbellaria 0 0 0Caspiobdella fadejewi Hirudinea 0 0 0Atyaephyra desmaresti Crustacea 0 0 0Orconectes limosus Crustacea 0 0 0Hemimysis anomala Crustacea 0 0 0Menetus dilatatus Mollusca 0 0 0

negative impact, high abundanceCorophium curvispinum Crustacea -- -- --Hypania invalida Polychaeta - - -

negative or positive impact, competitionEchinogammarus ischnus Crustacea -- - -Proasellus meridianus Crustacea + + -Proasellus coxalis Crustacea + + -Jaera istri Crustacea + + -

species is part of assessmentHydropsyche bulgaromanorum Trichoptera 0 - -Potamopyrgus antipodarum Mollusca 0 - 0Gammarus tigrinus Crustacea -- + -Gammarus roeselii Crustacea + 0 0Nanocladius rectinervis Chironomidae 0 0 +Rheocricotopus chalybeatus Chironomidae 0 0 +Dreissena polymorpha Mollusca + + +Corbicula fluminea Mollusca + ++ +

othersDikerogammarus villosus Crustacea ? ? ?Corbicula fluminalis Mollusca + + +Ferrissia wautieri Mollusca - 0 -

watertype

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How to deal with invasive species in ecological quality assessments?

• exclude invasive species (assessment based on native species only)

• transform current metrics for log-transformed data (to diminish effect of invasive species)

• assign invasive species as %DN, %KM or %DP depending on their impact

• exclude biotopes (mainly hard substrates) from the assessment procedure

• connect reliability of assessment to (new) metric indicating the impact of invasive species

• introduce a metric based on other characteristics (i.e. diversity, functional groups)