The largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède, 1802): impacts of a powerful freshwater fish predator outside of its native range

Abstract

Biological invasions via anthropogenic vectors, intentional or not, are one of the main causes of ecological change in aquatic ecosystems. Micropterus salmoides (Lacepede, 1802) is often introduced for sport fishing purposes and is broadly distributed worldwide; it has been listed by IUCN as one of the 100 of the world’s worst invasive alien species. We conducted a systematic review of the literature using the ISI Web of Science and Scopus databases to synthesize the existing knowledge concerning introductions of M. salmoides introductions and their ecological impacts. We highlight major trends and gaps related to spatiotemporal patterns of the publications, research methods and ecological impacts. The number of publications relating to impacts of M. salmoides began to grow in the 1990’s and has been increasing in the last years. Studies of the species’ impact have been conducted in 16 countries, primarily in the Palearctic realm. There is a lack of studies in tropical and megadiverse regions. Most of the studies used field observational methodologies, with only a few theoretical studies. Most of the field observational studies were conducted in rivers and reservoirs. Impacts at the population and community levels, such as the local extirpation of native species and food web changes, were described more often than impacts at other biological levels. Finally we emphasize the necessity of developing management strategies in order to remove or, at least, control M. salmoides outside of its natural range and to deter additional introduction events into new habitats.