Abstract
Crab condos are designed to sample for invasive species, which are not specifically targeted using current Australian biosecurity methodologies. Smaller crab species are often excluded, overlooked and damaged to be collected via current trapping or collection methods. An artificial habitat collector such as the ‘crab condo’ (PVC tubes 25cm long and 50mm diameter arranged in a 3×3 square matrix) aims to provide shelter among an animal’s natural environment. Twenty condos were deployed on a weekly basis for 48 hours during the months of April and July 2012 within Hillarys Boat marina, Western Australia. Condos proved to be highly successful, capturing a total of 555 specimens from five different phyla, with over half (n=332) of specimens identified as crabs. The detection of 223 other smaller non-crab individuals, covering four different phyla highlighted the versatility of condos to sample a range of other small species, not only crabs. Given the recognized importance of early detection of marine pests at their early life stages and current lack of methods targeting small and cryptogenic species, the crab condo sampling method may fill an important gap in marine pest surveillance capacity.
Highlights
Throughout the past century, ultraviolet (UV) radiation has been used to kill microorganisms or inactivate them
Because UV light is effective across different types of microorganisms, it has been used as a secondary treatment of both wastewater and drinking water (Wolfe 1990)
UV light is used as component of some ballast water management systems to reduce the transfer and release of potential aquatic nuisance species in ballast water discharged from ships (e.g., Gregg et al 2009)
Summary
Throughout the past century, ultraviolet (UV) radiation has been used to kill microorganisms or inactivate them (that is, sterilize or render cells non-viable, preventing reproduction; Hijnen et al 2006). UV light is used as component of some ballast water management systems to reduce the transfer and release of potential aquatic nuisance species in ballast water discharged from ships (e.g., Gregg et al 2009). Other cellular components can be damaged via UV radiation (including both cell membranes and cytoplasmic proteins; Schwartz 1998), damage to DNA is the main mode of sterilization. In this case, exposure to UV radiation generates pyrimadine dimers (linkages between pyrimidine bases), which interfere with DNA replication (Goodsell 2001; Oguma et al 2002). In ballast water applications, characteristics of the ambient water taken up in ports (such as turbidity and the concentration of chromogenic dissolved organic matter) can attenuate the fluence (Hijnen et al 2006), so these parameters must be accounted for in designing ballast water management systems
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