Biological invasion by a benthivorous fish reduced the cover and species richness of aquatic plants in most lakes of a large North American ecoregion

Abstract

Biological invasions are projected to be the main driver of biodiversity and ecosystem function loss in lakes in the 21st century. However, the extent of these future losses is difficult to quantify because most invasions are recent and confounded by other stressors. In this study, we quantified the outcome of a century-old invasion, the introduction of common carp to North America, to illustrate potential consequences of introducing non-native ecosystem engineers to lakes worldwide. We used the decline in aquatic plant richness and cover as an index of ecological impact across three ecoregions: Great Plains, Eastern Temperate Forests and Northern Forests. Using whole-lake manipulations, we demonstrated that both submersed plant cover and richness declined exponentially as carp biomass increased such that plant cover was reduced to <10% and species richness was halved in lakes in which carp biomass exceeded 190 kg ha . Using catch rates amassed from 2000+ lakes, we showed that carp exceeded this biomass level in 70.6% of Great Plains lakes and 23.3% of Eastern Temperate Forests lakes, but 0% of Northern Forests lakes. Using model selection analysis, we showed that carp was a key driver of plant species richness along with Secchi depth, lake area and human development of lake watersheds. Model parameters showed that carp reduced species richness to a similar degree across lakes of various Secchi depths and surface areas. In regions dominated by carp (e.g., Great Plains), carp had a stronger impact on plant richness than human watershed development. Overall, our analysis shows that the introduction of common carp played a key role in driving a severe reduction in plant cover and richness in a majority of Great Plains lakes and a large portion of Eastern Temperate Forests lakes in North America.

Koi herpesvirus and carp oedema virus: Infections and coinfections during mortality events of wild common carp in the United States

“…Common carp ( Cyprinus carpio ), hereafter referred to as carp, (and its selectively bred ornamental variety, koi), is a species that has significant economic, recreational and cultural value in many parts of the world (FAO, ; Rahman, ; Vilizzi, ). Due to its popularity and hardiness, carp are one of the oldest and most widespread cultured species worldwide and have unfortunately proven to be a destructive invasive species in many shallow lake regions (Bajer et al, ; Kloskowski, ; Weber & Brown, ). Intensive culture of carp and international trade has also led to the global spread of viral pathogens of carp (Gotesman, Kattlun, Bergmann, & El‐Matbouli, ; Haenen et al, ) including cyprinid herpesvirus‐1 (CyHV‐1), koi herpesvirus (KHV; cyprinid herpesvirus‐3), carp oedema virus (CEV) and spring viremia of carp virus (SVCV).…”

Habitat selection and reproductive success of coot Fulica atra on ponds under different fish size and density conditions

“…Coot densities have been reported to be considerably higher on carp ponds than on natural wetlands (Kozulin et al, 1998). On the other hand, cultured and widely stocked carp species are capable of adversely affecting entire ecosystems, both via trophic influences and habitat modification (Pípa-lová, 2006;Bajer et al, 2016;Collins & Wahl, 2017). Common carp (Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758) is the most notorious for substantial top-down and bottomup effects through omnivorous feeding, mainly on detritus, benthic macroinvertebrates and zooplankton; however, the foraging-related abiotic influence of carp may create an even stronger disturbance pathway, with declines in water transparency and submerged macrophytes (Vilizzi et al, 2015;Kaemingk et al, 2017).…”

Global patterns and clines in the growth of common carp Cyprinus carpio

“…In the former case, the very large number of waterbodies investigated for C . carpio age‐and‐growth is a reflection of the historical concerns about the species' detrimental effects, which were recently quantified in an extensive study of 2000+ lakes across three temperate ecoregions of Minnesota (Bajer et al ., ). Whereas, the dense network of studies from Turkey is to be regarded as an outcome of the importance of this species to local fisheries (Gaygusuz et al ., ), which has resulted mainly in descriptive studies aimed at providing basic population biology data (Vilizzi et al ., ; Vilizzi & Tarkan, ).…”

“…Although in some of its non‐native areas of distribution, such as North America and Australasia, C . carpio is highly invasive (McCrimmon, ; Moyle, ; Koehn, ; Bajer et al ., ), it is also regarded as a (potential) threat in several other regions of Africa, Asia, South America and Europe (Fernández et al ., ; Britton et al ., ; Clavero & Villero, ; Macklin et al ., ; Maiztegui et al ., ; Piria et al ., ).…”