Accelerated invasion of decapod crustaceans in the southernmost point of the Atlantic coast of Europe: A non-natives’ hot spot?

Abstract

Observations of previously unrecorded non-native species in the Gulf of Cadiz (Spain), situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, have accelerated since 1980, and increased rapidly in the past 5 years. Four new records of decapod crustaceans have been detected in this region: the African snapping shrimp Alpheus sp., the West African cleaner shrimp Lysmata uncicornis, the Indo-West Pacific giant tiger prawn, Penaeus monodon, and the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus. The introduction and establishment of these species into the coastal waters of this region, the southernmost Atlantic coast of Spain may have been influenced by recent anthropogenic alteration of habitat, particularly estuaries and salt marshes, and by climate change facilitating the spread of warm water biota.