First New Zealand records of three non‐indigenous Zooplankton species:Skistodiaptomus pallidus, Sinodiaptomus valkanovi,andDaphnia dentifera

Abstract

We present the first records from

Establishment of Chydorus sphaericus (O.F. Muller, 1785) (Crustacea: Cladocera) in Australia: consequences of mass fish stocking from Northern Europe?

“…Several exotic species of Daphnia have already appeared in Australia: the Palaearctic D. obtusa Kurz, 1874 (Benzie and Hodges, 1996), D. dentifera Forbes, 1893 (Duggan et al, 2006) from North America and East Asia and aforementioned North American asexual D. pulex lineage (Duggan et al, 2012). The latter authors speculated that the appearance of D. pulex in New Zealand was related to mass stocking to this country of several species of fishes (brown trout, rainbow trout and land-locked salmon) from North America.…”

“…The expansion of geographical distribution of species via anthropogenic factors is common and has been reported previously for many planktonic crustaceans such as copepods (Gutierrez-Aguirre and Suárez-Morales, 2000;Suárez-Morales et al, 2005;Duggan et al, 2006;Briski et al, 2011b;Sukhikh et al, 2013). Cladocerans are among the most famous invaders of water bodies due to their destructive effect on native ecosystems.…”

Zooplankton seasonal dynamics in a recently filled mine pit lake: the effect of non-indigenous Daphnia establishment

“…Daphnia dentifera were not recorded during this study until late April 2005 (a single occurrence), and were not recorded again until July 2005, when they became abundant. We cannot be certain that these were the first appearances in this lake of this non-indigenous North American species, which first appeared in New Zealand around 1990 (Duggan et al 2006). However, we did not record this species in preliminary samples from this lake on 4 June and 26 July 2004, suggesting that it established during this study and was absent beforehand.…”

“…Fahnenstiel et al 1995;Idrisi et al 2001). Daphnia dentifera has spread rapidly in New Zealand, and in recent years has dominated the zooplankton abundance and biomass of many New Zealand rivers and lakes, and its effects are now likely to be widespread in New Zealand (Burger et al 2002;Duggan et al 2006). Regardless of whether or not Daphnia first invaded Weavers Lake during this study, their absence at the beginning of the study and presence at the equivalent time at the end of the study indicates the effects that this species can potentially have on phytoplankton biomass in New Zealand lakes.…”

“…Cladoceran and cyclopoid copepod species, in contrast, are seemingly ubiquitous, with Bosmina and Ceriodaphnia the typical cladoceran inhabitants of any lake (Chapman and Green 1987). Daphnia have traditionally been an uncommon component in New Zealand lakes (Chapman and Green 1987), although the North American Daphnia dentifera has recently become widespread and abundant throughout North Island lakes (Duggan et al 2006). A high efficiency of filter feeding has been observed for daphnids relative to other zooplankton species, and these species are generally considered responsible for initiating the spring ''clear water phase'' in many lakes elsewhere (e.g.…”