The Copepod <i>Acartia tonsa</i> Dana in a Microtidal Mediterranean Lagoon: History of a Successful Invasion
2019
Elisa Camatti | Marco Pansera | Alessandro Bergamasco
The Lagoon of Venice has been recognized as a hot spot for the introduction of nonindigenous species. Several anthropogenic factors as well as environmental stressors concurred to make this ecosystem ideal for invasion. Given the zooplankton ecological relevance related to the role in the marine trophic network, changes in the community have implications for environmental management and ecosystem services. This work aims to depict the relevant steps of the history of invasion of the copepod <i>Acartia tonsa</i> in the Venice lagoon, providing a recent picture of its distribution, mainly compared to congeneric residents. In this work, four datasets of mesozooplankton were examined. The four datasets covered a period from 1975 to 2017 and were used to investigate temporal trends as well as the changes in coexistence patterns among the <i>Acartia</i> species before and after <i>A. tonsa</i> settlement. Spatial distribution of <i>A. tonsa</i> was found to be significantly associated with temperature, phytoplankton, particulate organic carbon (POC), chlorophyll <i>a</i>, and counter gradient of salinity, confirming that <i>A. tonsa</i> is an opportunistic tolerant species. As for previously dominant species, <i>Paracartia latisetosa</i> almost disappeared, and <i>Acartia margalefi</i> was not completely excluded. In 2014−2017, <i>A. tonsa</i> was found to be the dominant <i>Acartia</i> species in the lagoon.
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