Potential Threat of an Invasive Fish Species for Two Native Newts Inhabiting Wetlands of Europe Vulnerable to Climate Change

Abstract

In the modern world, when the problems of the environment are most acutely associated with climate change, amphibians are considered to be the most vulnerable group of anamniotes as an indicator of the state of wetlands. Along with a decrease of numbers among amphibians in Europe, nowadays newts especially suffer from the impact of invasive species, in particular predators such as the Chinese sleeper, Perccottus glenii. This predatory fish species has recently spread to areas of primary relevance for newt reproduction. This fish consumes eggs, larvae, and even adult newt individuals. Using an ecological niche approach and climate based species distribution models (SDM), we applied the coefficient of determination (R2) for comparing the level of similarity of the built SDM for the newts Triturus cristatus and Lissotriton vulgaris, and the Chinese sleeper. We show that by 2050, the level of climatic niche similarity for these native and invasive species will increase from 12% to 22% throughout Europe, and from 44% to 66% in Eastern Europe. This study highlights the expansion of the Chinese sleeper as a real threat to European biodiversity of wetlands in the near future, especially in their most northeastern distribution range.

Coastal wetlands of Indus River Delta are under risk due to reclamation: A spatiotemporal analysis during the past 50 years from 1972 to 2022

“…This trend continued in the following two decades, with wetlands continuing to be lost to agriculture and urbanization. However, due to some restoration efforts, there was a modest trend reversal from 2002 to 2012, with a net increase of wetlands replacing barren land (Pupins et al, 2023). The research also highlights the importance of measures to protect wetlands and other natural habitats.…”

Generalist invasion in a complex lake food web

“…While Amur sleeper is efficient at utilizing various food resources ranging from ciliates to vertebrates, and can thus avoid competition with other species, there are also additional pathways through which it can affect the ecosystem: Amur sleeper can efficiently escape predation (Kati et al, 2015) making it more resilient than some of its competitors while at the same time it can transmit diseases to other species (Kvach et al, 2020; Pupins et al, 2023). As a generalist intermediate consumer, Amur sleeper can cause significant and hard‐to‐predict top‐down and bottom‐up effects in ecosystems it invades (Reshetnikov, 2013).…”

Prediction of Current and Future Suitable Habitats for Three Invasive Freshwater Fish Species in Europe

“…Modeling the suitable conditions for the species was carried out in comparison with species that may affected by P. glenii, using two species of native newts in Latvia [76], where the model was projected onto the climate of the future. The presented models have a number of common features (unsuitable conditions in the north, south, and west of Europe for a model projected onto CliMond data from 1975, and a northward expansion when projected onto 2050 data) and differences (weaker northward shift of suitable conditions) with the results presented in this paper.…”