Abstract
The study of distribution and dispersal of invasive fishes is challenging during the early stages of invasion. Quantification of trace elements incorporated into fish hard parts represents an innovative technique for this task. Otolith chemistry has been used to describe fish stock structure, migratory behaviour and to support the management of several species. We used otolith chemistry to study the dispersal and population structure of tench (Tinca tinca), an invader in the St. Lawrence River. Tench movements throughout the invaded portion of the system were reconstructed using a Random Forests algorithm. The results showed that, despite the presumed limited dispersal capacity of the species, tench are capable of extensive migratory movements (up to 250 km). The variability in migratory patterns among individuals, including both short- and long-distance movements, supports a stratified diffusion. Such a strategy may explain the successful invasion of tench in the St. Lawrence River ecosystem. Our study represents a flexible framework for the study of tench ecology in its invaded and native range, as well as for other freshwater invasive fishes.
Highlights
The secondary spread of an invasive species following its initial introduction is of great importance to anticipate future distribution and potential impacts (Parker et al 1999)
The study of secondary dispersal is especially challenging for aquatic invasive species (AIS), which are rarely directly observed without capture
Technical advances in numerous fields have opened the way to more efficient detection and monitoring strategies of invasive species, notably through environmental DNA detection (Darling and Mahon 2011), genetic population structure (Bronnenhuber et al 2011; Stepien et al 2018), acoustic telemetry (Harris et al 2020) and fish otolith chemistry (Carlson et al 2017)
Summary
The secondary spread of an invasive species following its initial introduction is of great importance to anticipate future distribution and potential impacts (Parker et al 1999). Technical advances in numerous fields have opened the way to more efficient detection and monitoring strategies of invasive species, notably through environmental DNA detection (Darling and Mahon 2011), genetic population structure (Bronnenhuber et al 2011; Stepien et al 2018), acoustic telemetry (Harris et al 2020) and fish otolith chemistry (Carlson et al 2017) From this perspective, otolith chemistry could be used for assessing dispersal mechanisms and identifying other relevant aspects of their biology like the origin of the fish, movement history during the early stages of colonization and the lifetime movement patterns (Campana 1999; Walther 2019)
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