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Rainfall stochasticity controls the distribution of invasive crayfish and its impact on amphibian guilds in Mediterranean temporary waters

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Abstract

Invasive crayfish have severely impacted invaded aquatic ecosystems worldwide. We studied temporal and spatial variation in the range expansion of the red swamp crayfish at one of the first European localities to which it was introduced: Doñana National Park (SW Spain). In contrast to the rapid range expansion witnessed in other areas, this invasive crayfish has not spread across the entire park. Instead, its distribution has expanded during wet periods, but contracted during drought periods. The red swamp crayfish has caused steep amphibian declines in other invaded areas. However, after approximately 35 years of crayfish presence in Doñana National Park, we have yet to detect a reduction in the number or occurrence of amphibian species. Amphibians may thus be protected by the large abundance of temporary ponds in the area, which provides them with an effective refuge network. We show that natural fluctuations in annual rainfall and in the number of ponds filled can temporarily eliminate invasive crayfish from particular areas. This fact should be taken into account when attempting to reduce the impact of crayfish on aquatic communities, intensifying crayfish removal during particularly dry years, when it is most effective.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the monitoring team of the Doñana Biological Reserve for providing the crayfish survey data and Isabel Afán (LAST-EBD) for her assistance with map figures. This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and EU Feder Funds (Project CGL2009-11123/BOS, CGL2012-) and by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Project 158/2010). CK was supported by grants from the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional—AECI (Spain), the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico—CNPq, proc. nr. 204322-89 (Brazil) and the Fundación Caja Madrid (Spain) from 1991 to 1999. CGR is funded by the Xunta de Galicia (postdoctoral fellowship POS-A/2012/052).

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Author notes

  1. Claudia Keller

    Present address: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia- INPA, Coordenação de Pesquisas em Biodiversidade, CBIO, CP 478, Manaus, AM, 69011-971, Brazil

  2. Carola Gómez-Rodríguez

    Present address: Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, c/Lope Gómez de Marzoa s/n, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Américo Vespucio s/n, 41092, Sevilla, Spain

    Carmen Díaz-Paniagua, Claudia Keller, Margarita Florencio, Ana C. Andreu, Alexandre Portheault, Carola Gómez-Rodríguez & Ivan Gomez-Mestre

  2. Natural History Museum-Life Sciences Department, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    Carola Gómez-Rodríguez

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  1. Carmen Díaz-Paniagua
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Díaz-Paniagua, C., Keller, C., Florencio, M. et al. Rainfall stochasticity controls the distribution of invasive crayfish and its impact on amphibian guilds in Mediterranean temporary waters. Hydrobiologia 728, 89–101 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-1808-6

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