The racer goby, <i>Babka gymnotrachelus</i> (Kessler, 1857) invades the Evros river: evidence of recent establishment in Greece

Zogaris, Stamatis; Ntakis, Alexandros; Barbieri, Roberta

doi:10.1051/kmae/2019006

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Competition for feeding objects and spawning areas, as a rule, results in further expansion when the population increases and smaller specimens are forced to change habitats [10,50]. RGwas also considered invasive in the transboundary of the Evros River basin [51].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological and Trophic Features of the Invasive Babka gymnotrachelus (Gobiidae) in the Plain and Mountainous Ecosystems of the Dniester Basin: Spatiotemporal Expansion and Possible Threats to Native Fishes

Afanasyev,

Hupalo,

Tymoshenko

et al. 2023

Fishes

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Over the last few years, the racer goby B. gymnotrachelus quickly expanded in the mountainous rivers of the Dniester basin at aheight of 300 m a.s.l. and above. The occurrence frequency of the racer goby in fish communities in the mountainous rivers of the Carpathian ecoregion remains low (up to 20%), as compared with the plain rivers, where the species occurs in 70–100% of cases. The major prey groups in its diet in both plain and mountainous were Chironomidae, Diptera, and Crustacea. Chironomidae formed the maximal portion (35% at an occurrence frequency of 72.5%), and Trichoptera formed 18%at an occurrence frequency of 41%, whereas fish larvae were absent in their diet in mountainous rivers. The peculiar environmental conditions of mountainous rivers caused the adaptive modifications of the morphological features of the racer goby at the subpopulation level, which compriseda decrease inthe specimens’ size in rivers with a flow velocity of above 1.5 m/s and rivers with pebble contentsof above 50%in the bottom sediments.The modifications showed an increase inbody streamlining as an adaptation to flow velocity and turbulence and the stony substrate of the river’s bottom. Thus, the morphological adaptation of B. gymnotrachelus to the conditions of the mountainous rivers is in progress, and the formationof astable population in these rivers can be expected. In contrast, the native fish species’ resilience in the face of newcomers is still high, and this is because their alevins are not food for invaders.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological and Trophic Features of the Invasive Babka gymnotrachelus (Gobiidae) in the Plain and Mountainous Ecosystems of the Dniester Basin: Spatiotemporal Expansion and Possible Threats to Native Fishes

Afanasyev,

Hupalo,

Tymoshenko

et al. 2023

Fishes

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“…Invasive racer gobies were recorded in Poland in 1995 in the Bug River 22 , and in 2000 in the lower Vistula River 23 , and its fast spreading in Vistula was observed in 2002 24 . An invasion of racer goby has also been recently described in Lithuania, probably reached by the species through artificial canals connecting the Neumnas River with the Pripyat and Vistula Rivers 25 and in Greece, where it was found in the Evros River catchment 26 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Habitat selection patterns of a species at the edge – case study of the native racer goby population in Central Europe

Kukuła

Ortyl

Bylak

2019

Sci Rep

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Invasive alien species are regarded a nuisance. This extends into a lack of conservation efforts in their native range. As a consequence, conservation of e.g. range-edge populations is neglected. Gobiidae have many representatives of alien species in European freshwaters, and therefore they have a bad reputation. Objectives of this study were to: define the habitat selection patterns of a species at the edge, and examine the ontogenetic variation in its distributions, i.e. spatial distribution of different size classes. A racer goby Babka gymnotrachelus (syn. Neogobius gymnotrachelus) population was selected for the model. In numerous European river basins, Ponto-Caspian racer goby has been an invasive alien species of interest to researchers for many years. Recently, however, native populations of the species have been described in the Polish tributary of the upper Dniester River (Black Sea basin). We used habitat data and densities of racer goby to disentangle the habitat selection patterns of the species at a river reach at the edge of its native range. Evident preferences towards habitats with large submerged objects serving as hiding places were characteristic of the largest gobies. Adult, largest gobies were very likely to choose the ‘boulders’ site, while forcing smaller individuals to occupy places with faster water current, i.e. less suitable in terms of saving energy. At a larger geographic scale, a significant portion of the submountain river was unsuitable for racer gobies. At the edge of the racer goby range, patches providing habitats suitable for the species were scarce and scattered. With regard to invasive populations, the presence of stony bottoms, quite certainly cannot be considered as a factor excluding potential colonisation by racer goby, and in submountain rivers it might be the preferred kind of bottom.

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“…This refers to human-assisted aquatic species dispersal which disperses downstream of Bulgarian entry points. In this way, the north-south running Evros and its tributaries such as the Erythropotamos, are pathway gates for species entering the Aegean basins of Greece and Turkey from Bulgaria's Danubian and Black Sea basin invasive alien biota (Zogaris et al, 2019). In recent years this transport could have been either facilitated by human activities, such as increased hydroelectric dam-building, fishing and various recreational activities or by bird transfer (Crespo et al, 2015;Coughlan et al, 2017) or naturally by downstream drift.…”

Section: Mots Clés : Invasion / Espèces Exotiques / Bioinvasion / Dispersion / Eau Doucementioning

confidence: 99%

Rival at the gate: first record of the Asian clam Corbicula fluminea Müller, 1774 (Bivalvia: Corbiculidae) in Greece

Karaouzas

Zogaris

Froufe

et al. 2020

Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.

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This contribution presents the first record of the Asian clam Corbicula fluminea Müller, 1774 in Greece. The species was collected in Erythropotamos River (Reka Luda Луда река), one of the main tributaries of Evros River (classical name of the Maritsa river), thus being the southernmost record of this invasive bivalve in the Balkan Peninsula. The most likely entry source of C. fluminea in Greece is through active or passive downstream drift through the Bulgarian part of Erythropotamos River, which is shared between Bulgaria and Greece. Special attention is now required to assess the invasion extent of the Asian clam in the entire Evros basin and adjacent river basins of Bulgaria and the Aegean basins of Greece and Turkey.

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The racer goby, Babka gymnotrachelus (Kessler, 1857) invades the Evros river: evidence of recent establishment in Greece

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Morphological and Trophic Features of the Invasive Babka gymnotrachelus (Gobiidae) in the Plain and Mountainous Ecosystems of the Dniester Basin: Spatiotemporal Expansion and Possible Threats to Native Fishes

Morphological and Trophic Features of the Invasive Babka gymnotrachelus (Gobiidae) in the Plain and Mountainous Ecosystems of the Dniester Basin: Spatiotemporal Expansion and Possible Threats to Native Fishes

Habitat selection patterns of a species at the edge – case study of the native racer goby population in Central Europe

Rival at the gate: first record of the Asian clam Corbicula fluminea Müller, 1774 (Bivalvia: Corbiculidae) in Greece

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