Evaluation of sampling and analysis techniques for early detection of Limnoperna fortunei (Mytilidae) in limit areas of its distribution

Abstract

on numerous South American rivers includes, among others, alteration of benthonic communities, alteration of fish diet, as well as severe macrofouling problems at industrial water intakes (Darrigran, 2002). Thus, it is fundamental to know the dynamic distribution of this invading species to explain its invading process and to have access to basic informa-tion to predict its distribution/ dispersion pattern.In the framework of a larger Project, in which we try to establish the extreme distribution limits of this species in South America, this work has as its goal to evaluate the efficiency of the sampling techniques of larvae and adults for the early detection of the invading species. For this purpose, sampling was carried out in different water bodies in limit areas of the species distribution in the en-dorreic system in the Province of Cordoba, Argentina.Between December 15 and 18, 2006, quantitative and qualitative samples of benthos and plankton were taken in eight localities looking for adults and larvae of the golden mussel (Table 1). Differing from sam-pling techniques in environments already invaded by the golden mussel where the aim is to know the population distribution of the settlement (e.g. Mansur et al., 2003), the goal of the sampling done in this work was early de-tection of the invading bivalve. The presence of adults of