Domestic ships as a potential pathway of nonindigenous species from the Saint Lawrence River to the Great Lakes

Abisola A Adebayo,Aibin Zhan,Hugh J Macisaac,Sarah A Bailey

doi:10.1007/s10530-013-0537-5

Abisola A Adebayo, Aibin Zhan + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-013-0537-5

Copy DOI

Abstract

Ballast water moved by transoceanic vessels has been recognized globally as a predominant vector for the introduction of aquatic nonindigenous species (NIS). In contrast, domestic ships operating within confined geographic areas have been viewed as low risk for invasions, and are exempt from regulation in consequence. We examined if the St. Lawrence River could serve as a source of NIS for the Laurentian Great Lakes by surveying ballast water carried by domestic vessels and comparing biological composition in predominant St. Lawrence River-Great Lakes port-pairs in order to determine the likelihood that NIS could be transported to, and survive in, the Great Lakes. Thirteen potential invaders were sampled from ballast water, while 26 taxa sampled from St. Lawrence River ports are not reported from the Great Lakes. The majority of NIS recorded in samples are marine species with low potential for survival in the Great Lakes, however two euryhaline species (copepod Oithona similis, and amphipod Gammarus palustris) and two taxa reported from brackish waters (copepod Microsetella norvegica and decapod Cancer irroratus) may pose a risk for invasion. In addition, four marine NIS were collected in freshwater samples indicating that at least a subset of marine species have potential as new invaders to the Great Lakes. Based on results from this study, the ports of Montreal, Sorel, Tracy and Trois Rivières appear to pose the highest risk for new ballast-mediated NIS from the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes.

Highlights

The anthropogenic movement of nonindigenous species (NIS) around the world has occurred for many centuries, though the rate of invasions accelerated in recent decades owing to technological advances in transportation, expanding global economies, and attendant international trade (e.g. Mack et al 2000; Work et al 2005; Hulme 2009; Sylvester and MacIsaac 2010)
We compared the abundance of NIS not reported from the Great Lakes in our Saint Lawrence River ballast samples against similar data for vessels with foreign exchanged ballast water (Bailey et al 2011a) to evaluate the relative importance of this pathway
Sørensen’s similarity index values for all high and medium risk donor Saint Lawrence River ports and their respective top Great Lakes recipient ports ranged from 0.07 (Port Cartier-Thunder Bay) to 0.53 (TracyThunder Bay), indicating that none of the Saint Lawrence River—Great Lakes port-pairs are highly similar in community composition. This is the first study to examine the potential for introduction of new NIS through domestic ballast water transported from the Saint Lawrence River to the Great Lakes

Summary

Introduction

The anthropogenic movement of nonindigenous species (NIS) around the world has occurred for many centuries, though the rate of invasions accelerated in recent decades owing to technological advances in transportation, expanding global economies, and attendant international trade (e.g. Mack et al 2000; Work et al 2005; Hulme 2009; Sylvester and MacIsaac 2010). The anthropogenic movement of nonindigenous species (NIS) around the world has occurred for many centuries, though the rate of invasions accelerated in recent decades owing to technological advances in transportation, expanding global economies, and attendant international trade Transoceanic ships have been a dominant vector of aquatic NIS, with ballast water, ballast sediments and hull biofouling attributed with introduction of hundreds of species globally (Ruiz et al 1997; Minchin and Gollasch 2003; Bailey et al 2007). Vector management seeks to reduce the diversity and abundance of NIS transported to new locations (Lodge et al 2006; Ricciardi 2006; Bailey et al 2011a). Midocean exchange reduces the abundance of NIS in ballast tanks through purging of biota at sea, and is protective of freshwater ports through the introduction of a salinity barrier that imposes osmotic stress on freshwater NIS (Bailey et al 2011a; Briski et al 2013)

Methods

Results

Conclusion