Recent and Consecutive Records of the Atlantic Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896): Rapid Westward Expansion and Confirmed Establishment along the Southern Coast of Portugal

Vasconcelos, Paulo; Carvalho, André N.; Piló, David; Pereira, Fábio; Encarnação, João; Gaspar, Miguel B.; Teodósio, Maria Alexandra

doi:10.1007/s41208-019-00163-1

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Yet, the other 117 Atlantic blue crabs allowed to track the fast westward expansion of the species for over 90 km along the coast of the Algarve (Figure 5A). Furthermore, the number of reported individuals represents a 46-fold increase in comparison to data obtained during the 3 years prior to NEMA (Morais et al, 2019;Vasconcelos et al, 2019). NEMA also brought to light a record made in May 2018 at Alvor (Figure 5A, observation #20) which would have extended the known distribution in 65 km by the time the two scientific publications were made in 2019 (Morais et al, 2019;Vasconcelos et al, 2019).…”

Section: Tracking the Expansion Of Invasive Aquatic Speciesmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Subsequent collections made between November 2018 and January 2019 in Ria Formosa and adjacent coastal areas have confirmed the presence and establishment of the species in the Eastern Algarve (Vasconcelos et al, 2019). Its presence in southern Portugal was hypothesized to be due to the expansion of neighbor populations from south Spain or even owing to a new introduction event (Morais et al, 2019;Vasconcelos et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The first Atlantic blue crabs were collected in the Ria Formosa coastal lagoon in 2016, while reports from 2017 indicate that the species already occupied a 25 km stretch of the Guadiana estuary in the border between Portugal and Spain (Morais et al, 2019). Subsequent collections made between November 2018 and January 2019 in Ria Formosa and adjacent coastal areas have confirmed the presence and establishment of the species in the Eastern Algarve (Vasconcelos et al, 2019). Its presence in southern Portugal was hypothesized to be due to the expansion of neighbor populations from south Spain or even owing to a new introduction event (Morais et al, 2019;Vasconcelos et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…It was recorded for the first time on the Atlantic coasts of Europe in 1900 and the Mediterranean Sea in 1935 (Bouvier, 1901;Nehring, 2011). Nowadays, several established populations exist in the North Sea (Belgium and Netherlands), Atlantic coasts of the Iberian Peninsula (Nehring, 2011;Morais et al, 2019;Vasconcelos et al, 2019), and across the Mediterranean Sea (Mancinelli et al, 2017;Taybi and Mabrouki, 2020). The contribution of citizen scientists in tracking the expansion of this species has been critical in the Mediterranean Sea.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Low-Cost Citizen Science Effectively Monitors the Rapid Expansion of a Marine Invasive Species

Encarnação

Baptista

Teodósio

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Citizen science and informed citizens have become fundamental in providing the first records and accounts about the expansion of numerous non-indigenous species. However, implementing a successful citizen science campaign can be expensive and particularly difficult for aquatic species. Here, we demonstrate how a low-cost citizen science campaign and its outreach plan in social and traditional media enabled to track the expansion of the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896 along the coast of Algarve (southern Portugal, Europe). We describe the outreach strategy and a cost-benefit analysis of the first year of the citizen science campaign. Social media platforms allowed us to reach a significant number of citizens (over 31,500 clicks in Facebook publications), while traditional media gave national visibility to the citizen science campaign and biological invasions. In only 1 year, we documented the spread of the invasive Atlantic blue crab across the entire 140 km of the Algarve coast with 166 valid observations referring to 1747 specimens, submitted by 62 citizen scientists. We spent 0 € on the citizen science campaign, but considering the time invested in the campaign the cost would have summed up to 3,751 €, while the total minimum cost for one scientist to go to the field and retrieve the equivalent information would have exceeded 11,000 €. We used free online tools of communication to obtain the records about the Atlantic blue crab, instead of a dedicated web platform or mobile app, and handled social media accounts ourselves, which saved us at least 18,815 €. The citizen science campaign revealed that the Atlantic blue crab is unequivocally established in southern Portugal and that females appear to exhibit summer migrations to coastal areas to spawn as in the native area. Overall, our low-cost citizen science campaign effectively documented the rapid spread of a marine invasive species while providing some insights into its ecology. Our strategy can be easily replicated and implemented elsewhere in the world to tackle the ever-growing problem of biological invasions while increasing the scientific literacy of local populations.

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Section: Tracking the Expansion Of Invasive Aquatic Speciesmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Low-Cost Citizen Science Effectively Monitors the Rapid Expansion of a Marine Invasive Species

Encarnação

Baptista

Teodósio

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

Self Cite

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“…Recent northward expansion of the North American range into the Gulf of Maine has been observed and attributed to warmer than usual ocean temperatures in higher latitudes (Johnson, 2015). In addition to its broad natural range, C. sapidus has been introduced to the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean, Adriatic, North, and Baltic Seas as well as waters of Hawai'i and Japan via human-mediated transport (Benabdi, Belmahi & Grimes, 2019;Castejón & Guerao, 2013;Dulčić et al, 2011;Eldredge, 1995;Galil, 2008;Keskin & Atar, 2013;Nehring, 2011;Perdikaris et al, 2015;Piras, Esposito & Meloni, 2019;Snovsky & Galil, 1990;Vasconcelos et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of variation within the barcode region of CytochromecOxidase I (COI) for the detection of commercialCallinectes sapidusRathbun, 1896 (blue crab) products of non-US origin

Windsor

Moore

Warner³

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896 is a western Atlantic species with a disjointed natural geographic range from Massachusetts, USA to Venezuela (distribution area 1) and from Alagoas, Brazil to northern Argentina (distribution area 2). It is the only species of portunid crab commercially harvested in the continental United States but is also imported into the US from several Latin American countries, Venezuela and Mexico in particular. In the United States, crab products labeled as “blue crab” and “Product of the USA” may not legally contain other species of crab or C. sapidus not harvested in the United States. The present study documents nucleotide variation within the barcode region of cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) in 417 reference specimens of C. sapidus collected from throughout its natural range. The goal of this study is to determine if this variation can be utilized to detect mislabeled C. sapidus products sold in interstate commerce by comparing genetic signatures in reference specimens to those observed in commercial crabmeat labeled as “Product of the USA” and “Product of Venezuela.” In reference specimens, we observed high levels of genetic variation in the barcode region. However, three lineages were consistently observed with significant pairwise Fst values between the lineages. Lineage 1 was observed throughout the natural geographic range but predominated in the continental US and was the only lineage observed in the major crabmeat-producing states (MD, LA, VA, NC). Lineage 2 primarily occurred in the Caribbean region of distribution area 1 but was also infrequently encountered in the South Atlantic Bight region of the US coast. Finally, Lineage 3 was only observed in Brazilian waters and had the lowest haplotype and nucleotide diversity values. Lineages 1 and 2 were separated by a mean pairwise distance (p-distance) of 3.15%, whereas Lineage 3 had a mean p-distance of 2.55% and 1.35% to Lineages 1 and 2, respectively. Within lineage mean p-distances were 0.45%, 0.19%, and 0.07% for Lineages 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Among all vouchered reference specimens collected from the continental United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, we identified 22 phylogenetically informative sites that drive observed lineage divergences. Haplotypes identified from barcode COI sequences from commercial C. sapidus products labeled as originating from the US all aligned with haplotypes from Lineage 1 reference specimens and haplotypes from commercial products labeled as originating from Venezuela all aligned with Lineage 2, suggesting that these lineages may be useful for indicating whether products originate from the continental US or are imported when package labeling is in question.

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Synergistic use of facebook, online questionnaires and local ecological knowledge to detect and reconstruct the bioinvasion of the Iberian Peninsula by Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896

Izquierdo-Gómez

2022

Biol Invasions

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Recent and Consecutive Records of the Atlantic Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896): Rapid Westward Expansion and Confirmed Establishment along the Southern Coast of Portugal

Cited by 14 publications

References 56 publications

Low-Cost Citizen Science Effectively Monitors the Rapid Expansion of a Marine Invasive Species

Low-Cost Citizen Science Effectively Monitors the Rapid Expansion of a Marine Invasive Species

Evaluation of variation within the barcode region of CytochromecOxidase I (COI) for the detection of commercialCallinectes sapidusRathbun, 1896 (blue crab) products of non-US origin

Synergistic use of facebook, online questionnaires and local ecological knowledge to detect and reconstruct the bioinvasion of the Iberian Peninsula by Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896

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