Citizens’ Eyes on Mnemiopsis: How to Multiply Sightings with a Click!

Valentina Tirelli,Milena Tempesta,Alenka Goruppi,Rodolfo Riccamboni

doi:10.3390/d13060224

Valentina Tirelli, Milena Tempesta + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/d13060224

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Abstract

Monitoring the spreading of marine invasive species represents one of the most relevant challenges for marine scientists in order to understand their impact on the environment. In recent years, citizen science is becoming more and more involved in research programs, especially taking advantage of new digital technologies. Here, we present the results obtained in the first 20 months (from 12 July 2019 to 8 March 2021) since launching avvistAPP. This new app was conceived to track the spreading of the invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi in the Adriatic Sea; it was also designed to collect sightings of 18 additional marine taxa (ctenophores, jellyfish, sea turtles, dolphins, salps and noble pen shell). A total of 1224 sightings were recorded, of which 530 referred to Mnemiopsis, followed by the scyphozoan jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo (22%), Cotylorhiza tuberculata (11%) and Aurelia spp. (8%). avvistAPP produced data confirming the presence of Mnemiopsis (often in abundances > 20 individuals m−2) along almost the entire Italian coast in the summer of 2019 and 2020.

Highlights

1865 is a ctenophore listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as being among the 100 World’s Worst Invasive
In 2005–2006, Mnemiopsis invaded the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. It inhabits almost all European marine water bodies [11]. It was first reported in the northern Adriatic Sea (NAD), in October 2005 [12], it disappeared from the water column soon after, only reappearing in the summer of 2016 [4]
The ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi was by far the most correctly observed species (45% of total correct sightings) followed by the scyphomedusae Rhizostoma pulmo (Macri, 1778) (22%), Cotylorhiza tuberculata (Macri, 1778) (11%) and Aurelia spp

Summary

Introduction

Alien Species, due to its serious impact on biological diversity and human activities [1] This planktonic gelatinous species is characterized by high reproductive rates [2,3,4] and high predation rates on zooplankton communities [5,6,7], giving Mnemiopsis the ability to severely impact the invaded ecosystems at ecological and economical levels [8,9,10]. It inhabits almost all European marine water bodies [11] It was first reported in the northern Adriatic Sea (NAD), in October 2005 [12], it disappeared from the water column soon after, only reappearing in the summer of 2016 [4]. M. leidyi has formed blooms in the NAD every year (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020) ([4], unpublished data) and caused increasing problems for fisheries, especially in the lagoon areas

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