Spatial and temporal patterns in the movement of Procambarus clarkii, an invasive crayfish

Abstract

Introduced in Italy in the 1980s for aquaculture enterprises, the red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, has invaded many water bodies, giving rise to breeding populations that now threaten freshwater ecosystems. An understanding of the spatial behaviour of this crayfish could be the baseline for future research aimed at control and management. Following the same pattern as other freshwater decapods, P. clarkii, studied in an irrigation ditch system in Florence, Tuscany, displayed stationary phases (several marked individuals were recaptured in the area) interposed with nomadic bursts of movement (many marked crayfish disappeared). With a few exceptions, nocturnal activity prevailed in almost all the seasons in two different analysed habitats (irrigation ditches and the Massaciuccoli Lake, Lucca). However, in the laboratory, locomotion occurred mostly at daytime. Although still prevailing, P. clarkii's nocturnal activity appeared puzzling, because some of its major predators are nocturnal and this species is mostly herbivorous. The intercalation between stationary and wandering phases leaves open further promising studies on social structures in the field.

Home range dynamics of the American lobster,Homarus americanus

“…It appears, both from this study, our previous investigation of lobster movements in the Great Bay estuary (Watson et al 1999) and our ongoing investigation of lobster movements outside the mesocosm (unpublished results) that many lobsters are nomadic, facultative shelter dwellers; alternating residence in a neighborhood for 1-2 weeks, with rapid excursions to a new neighborhood. This same pattern of intermittent movements and nomadic behavior has also been observed in two species of crayfish (Gherardi et al 2000;Robinson et al 2000). Further studies of other crustaceans, using high-resolution fixed array ultrasonic telemetry may reveal that this pattern of behavior is quite common in this group of animals.…”

“…The available data for several decapod species indicate that there is a relatively poor correlation between locomotor activity, home range size, and animal size. Some studies found no relationship (Watson et al 1999;Gherardi et al 2000;Comeau and Savoie 2001;Stone and O'Clair 2002;Cooke 2004;Golet et al 2006), while others found smaller animals moved farther (Kelly and MacDiarmid 2003;Linnane et al 2005). In this study, due to the size of the transmitter, the smallest lobster we could track was 62 mm CL, and due to availability in our study area, the largest was 93 mm CL.…”

Spatial dynamics of the noble crayfish (Astacus astacus, L.) in the Paklenica National Park

“…Bubb et al (2002;2004;2006a) obtained similar results to ours for the relationship between signal crayfish size and movement, while research on Pacifastacus leniusculus by Guan and Wiles (1997), and Light (2003), and research on Procambarus clarkii by Gherardi et al (2002) showed the opposite. Furthermore, no significant influence of sex on crayfish movement was established in the studies on signal crayfish (Bubb et al, 2002;2004), and on red swamp crayfish (Gherardi et al, 2000;2002), while the opposite was reported in the work by Light (2003). Both upstream and downstream movements were recorded with no significant difference between directions -although upstream movements were more frequently recorded at both localities.…”

Evaluation of different marking methods for spiny-cheek crayfish(Orconectes limosus)

“…The above methods are preferred to other marking methods for crustaceans, because they allow long-term individual identification and the tagging of small size-class animals. Other tags such as external marks are often lost during moults (Gherardi et al, 2000), whereas use of internal transponders (Bubb et al, 2002) and cauterization are hampered by the size of the animal. In addition, with cauterization spots are visible for only ca.…”