Rapid invasion of Crassostrea gigas into the German Wadden Sea dominated by larval supply
Authored by G Brandt, A Wehrmann, K W Wirtz
Date Published: 2008
DOI: 10.1016/j.seares.2008.03.004
Sponsors:
German Hermann von Helmholtz Association (HGF)
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Flow charts
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Invasions of non-indigenous species into coastal habitats have been a
frequent phenomenon in the last decades, sometimes with significant
impact on the receiving ecosystem. However, the understanding of the
entire process and especially the relative importance of larval supply
and local recruitment remains unclear. In this study, we simulate the
invasion of a benthic invertebrate into a previously uncolonised habitat
over several years and validate the results with field data. Therefore, we present field data from a monitoring programme revealing the rapid
invasion of the oyster Crassostrea gigas into the East Frisian Wadden
Sea, North Sea, between 2003 and 2005. The applied model combines a
simple, spatially-explicit population dynamics model for the adult stage
with a particle tracking model for the larval stage of the life cycle.
Simulation results are able to reproduce the large-scale pattern of the
field data and indicate a domination of larval supply on the population
dynamics in the early stage of the invasion. Though monitoring and
simulations suggest a single larval source outside the study area in the
west, the population dynamics in the eastern part is only explainable
with an additional source within the study area attributed to an
unintentional input of juveniles by mussel fishery. High sensitivities
to uncertain parameters result in distinct deviations between monitoring
and simulations at particular sites. Especially the impact of
site-specific variations of the post-settlement mortality underlines the
variability of local recruitment conditions and indicates the need for
spatially resolved information for exact predictions. (c) 2008 Elsevier
B.V. All rights reserved.
Tags
Vertical-distribution
Fertilization success
Benthic marine-invertebrates
Introduced pacific oysters
Mussel
mytilus-edulis
Bivalve larvae
Japanese oyster
Native mussels
Side ecology
Life-cycles