# Presentation: 035532

## Monitoring and Managing the Spread of Marine Invasive Species: Development of Approaches and Application to the European green crab (Carcinus maenas) and the Asian shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus)

*David G. Delaney*
*Department of Biology and School of the Environment*
*McGill University*

**Notes:**
Give background, data
Monitoring have the data

## CSI:  MISMO

- www.InvasiveTracers.com

## Outline	

- Background on Invasive Species
- Created by invasion biologist:
- Dr. Anthony Ricciardi of the Department of Biology of  McGill University  and the Redpath Museum
- Biology of the Crabs
- Importance of Marine systems for invasion and modeling.
- Objectives
- Research questions
- Spread & Monitoring Network
- Take Home Messages

## What is an ‘exotic species’?

-       *non-indigenous* species
-       *alien* species
-       *non-native* species
-       *introduced* species
- = **a species introduced to a region**
**   ****beyond the range in which it evolved**
-    (i.e. beyond its ‘native range’).

- =

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## When does an introduced species

- become an invader?
- An introduced species has invaded when
- it establishes a self-sustaining population.
**Biological Invasion**
**	**= the establishment of a species into
-    	   a region beyond its natural range.

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Biological invasion: the establishment of

**Biological invasion**: the establishment of
- a species outside of its natural range.

- Geographic
- (or physiological) barrier

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## What is an ‘invasive’ species?

**An introduced species that spreads rapidly.**
- Note:
-  ‘Invasive’ is a relative term.
-  Most introduced species are _not_ invasive.
-  A species may be invasive in some regions
-   but not others.

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Barriers to the establishment of an exotic species

- Recipient region

- Physiological barrier

- Geographic barrier

- Demographic resistance

- Biotic resistance

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## What is Invasion Ecology?

**The study of the causes & consequences**
**    ****of biological invasions**.
-   examines factors that influence *establishment*,
-    *spread*, and *impact* of introduced species.
-   a *multidiscplinary science* that combines elements from multiple fields of study (e.g. *community ecology, population biology, biogeography, evolution, conservation biology*)

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Biological Invasions are a form of

- anthropogenic global change.
- Invasions are occurring at
-     unprecedented rates & spatial scales.
- 2. Virtually all of these are the result of
-     human activities.

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## “Natural” Invasions

-   = invasions without human influence.
-  rare on human time scales.
-  occur over small spatial scales
-  require the removal of either:
-   (1) a *geographic* barrier -
-        i.e. the creation of dispersal corridors* *
*       *through glacial retreat, continental drift, or
-        chance events.
-  OR
-   (2) a *physiological* barrier -
-        e.g. a thermal barrier removed by climate change.

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Rate of invasion in the Baltic Sea

- of invaders

- Year

*Cohen & Carlton (1998)*

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Rate of invasion in San Francisco Bay

- of invaders

- Year

*Cohen & Carlton (1998)*

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Rates of species invasion in Hawaii

- Prior to human
- settlement:		   **1 per 30,000 yrs  (i.e. 0.00003/yr)**
- After human
- settlement:		   **1 per 50 yrs  (i.e. 0.02/yr)**
- Recently (during
- the past century):	   **1 every 3 weeks  (i.e. 20/yr)**

- Data from *Loope et al. (1988)*

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Why study invasions?

-  To understand how humans affect the
- 	 distribution & abundance of other species.
- 2. Invasions are altering ecosystems worldwide.
- 3. Invasions are a major cause of extinctions.
- 4. Invasions impact multiple aspects of society
- 	 (e.g. natural resources, technological systems,
- 	  regional economies, human health).

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

##   Elton (1958) -

**  **Elton (1958) -
-  first book to examine the
-   phenomenon.
-  identified invasions as a
-   threat to the world’s distinct
-   faunal realms.
-  examined factors that
-   promote or inhibit invasions.
-  proposed hypotheses that
-   are still being tested today.

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Number of invasion books published since 1954

*Simberloff (2004)*

- Number of Books

- 1958

- 1954

- 1962

- 1966

- 1978

- 1970

- 1974

- 1982

- 1986

- 1990

- 1994

- 1998

- 2002

- Dr. A. Ricciardi, lecture slides from *Ecology of Species Invasions* (BIOL540, McGill University)

## Importance of Marine Systems 

- Composed of many heavily invaded ecosystems
- Estuaries
- Rocky coasts
- Important for economics yields
- Fishing
- Lobsters
- Shellfish
- Understudied

## Biology and importance of European Green Crab (C. maenas)

- Economic damage by consuming:
- Ecological damage by outcompeting, displacing: Native Crabs
- Environmental tolerances to abiotic factors
- Temperature: 22 to –1 ̊C
- Salinity 54 to 4 ppt (great osmo-regulator)
*Therefore due to its wide tolerances: Green crab* is a generalist and an omnivore (eats almost anything!).

## Green crab (Carcinus maenas)

- Native: Atlantic coasts of Europe
-  Europe and northern Africa
- Invaded Areas: Australia, South Africa & both coasts of North America
- Importance:
- Fecundity 185,000 to 250,000 eggs each brood and more than 1 a year!
- Long temporal record (187 years)
- Discovered in 1817 in New Jersey
- Lack of quantitative record and completeness

- http://nas.er.usgs.gov/

## Asian shore crab(Hemigrapsus sanguineus)

- Range:
- Covers Portland, Maine to North Carolina and spreading!
**Habitat:** Rocky & cobblestone beaches
- Invaded New Jersey in 1987
- Short temporal but quantitative record
- Fecundity: 50,000 eggs per brood
- 4 to 5 broods in a single breeding season

- _[http://cars.er.usgs.gov/](http://cars.er.usgs.gov/)_

## How did it get to all these places?

- Unintentional Vectors:
- Ballast water transport of larvae form
- With live food trade of oysters and lobsters
- Research use
- Released pets
- Secondary dispersal by currents

## Data for the Two Species

- Green crab has a longer temporal and spatial record but gaps in each
- Asian shore crabs has shorter temporal record but less gaps
- Together, they offer a chance to create the first marine specific model.

- www.calacademy.org/

- http://www.iisgcp.org/EXOTICSP/images/Japanese_shore_crab/hiraiso

## Importance of the Project

- Species spread is a central themes in invasion biology
- Managing invasive species with scarce resources by prioritization.
- Identify which areas are most at risk of becoming invaded
- Early detection has been shown to increase chances of eradication of invasive species

## Objectives

- To forecast the spread of marine aquatic invaders
- To determine the best approach to monitoring invasive species
- To develop a long term volunteer monitoring network.

## Questions

*Is an invader absent in a location, or have we simply not observed it (in terms of probability)?*
*What is the effect of control (e.g., the removal of individuals) on the rate of spread?*
*How effective/reliable is a volunteer monitoring network?*
*Where will Hemigraspus spread?*
*What is the optimal monitoring strategy?*
*How sensitive is the spread model to life history parameters? To what extent can we extrapolate directly to other species (i.e., putting bounds on parameters)?*

## Current Modeling

- Ecological forecasting has been done for terrestrial systems using:
- Aquatic System: Yes for the fresh water aquatic invasive Zebra Mussels
- Marine: Only applied terrestrial models that overestimate spread of MIS

## General Methodology for Spread

- To forecast invasions we will merge:
- Continuous spread models
- Discrete ecological spread models (human)
-  Population dynamics
- GIS
- Oceanographic models (currents, temp, S)
- Target organism expanded to any planktonically dispersed organisms
- mollusks, fish, echinoderms, and other crustaceans

## Become a Super Sleuth, We need your help!

- Please join the network at:  _[www.invasivetracers.com](http://www.invasivetracers.com/)_
- http://www.sgnis.org/kids/index.html

## Who is in the monitoring network?

- The monitoring network will be constructed from volunteers across diverse groups, ranging from college and high school students to coastal communities :
- MIT, Bowdoin College, College of the Atlantic
- Elementary and High schools of many coastal states!
- New England Aquarium’s Harbor Discoveries program, College of the Atlantic Summer camp
- Acadia Institute of Oceanography
- Schooner Sound Learning
- The Nature Conservancy
- Six communities volunteers around Salem Sound, MA

## Participants of Pilot Program

- Time: Commences spring of 2005
- Duration: 2 to 5 years
- Future: Hopefully sustained by citizen science group such as:
- New England Centers of Ocean Sciences Education Excellence  (COSEE)
- New England Aquarium
- Salem Sound Coast Watch
- Or someone yet to step forward!

## Benefits of monitoring network

- To maximize the amount of human resources
- To maximize the effectiveness of monitoring MIS
- Volunteer based science a potential solution to the ever-decreasing funding availability

## Monitoring is so important!

- Monitoring is composed of 2 components
- Detection (a single crab)
- Abundance
- Best techniques for monitoring depend on objective, density of crabs in the area, and the scale of the area (a beach vs. a whole coast of New England).
- That citizen scientists in a regional (even international) network can provide key information for invasive monitoring even in the face of limited funding.

## Can you make a difference?

- YES!
- How?
- Do not release your pets into the wild 	“Free Wiley Syndrome”
- Gold fish in every pond in North America
- Lion fish in the Atlantic Coast of North America
- Piranhas in the Great Lakes
- Bunnies on Lovell’s Island, Boston Harbor
- Help scientists detect introduced species along your coastlines!
- Early detection increases chance of eradication

## Techniques for monitoring

- Quadrat searches
- How many crabs in a square area of PVC pipe
- Transect Searches
- Walk a vertical line and collect any crabs that you fine on that line.
- Better for sites with low densities
- Needle (Crab) in a Hay Stack (Beach)
- Crab Traps

- http://www.dal.ca/~cstaicer/Images/marine2/pages/INTERTI&.htm

- http://www.oberlin.edu/Geopage/Images/Transect.JPG