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Pathways and places associated with nonindigenous aquatic species introductions in the Laurentian Great Lakes

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Abstract

Propagule pressure (i.e., the frequency and abundance of introductions) is a common indicator of the likelihood of nonindigenous aquatic species (NAS) establishment success. Evaluating propagule pressure associated with multiple introduction pathways relative to present NAS distribution patterns may identify which pathway presents the greatest risk. Our objective was to develop and evaluate three geospatial metrics for the Laurentian Great Lakes as proxies of propagule pressure associated with three major introduction pathways: maritime commerce, organisms in trade, and water recreation. Logistic and linear regression analyses were conducted between NAS presence and introduction pathway intensity (e.g., number of vessel trips received by a port) for 23 NAS over a five-decade period (1970–2013). Notably, city population size was the best predictor of NAS presence, even for NAS introduced through ballast water discharge. Moreover, through time, city population size was an increasingly significant predictor of the presence of organisms in trade, signaling a change in both the types of organisms introduced and places where introductions are occurring. Nonetheless, all three metrics are reasonable proxies for propagule pressure and as such are applicable for risk assessment, monitoring, and control strategies.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Rochelle Sturtevant and Matt Cannister for providing nonindigenous aquatic species detection records from GLANSIS and the USGS NAS databases, Valerie Brady for providing nonindigenous aquatic invertebrate detections from the Great Lakes Indicator Consortium’s Coastal Wetlands Monitoring project, and David Allan, Sigrid Smith, Christine Joseph, and Sarah Bailey for providing marina size and ballast water discharge data from the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping (GLEAM) project. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This is Contribution # 622 of the University of Minnesota’s Natural Resources Research Institute publication series.

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Correspondence to Elon M. O’Malia.

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Guest editors: John E. Havel, Sidinei M. Thomaz, Lee B. Kats, Katya E. Kovalenko & Luciano N. Santos / Aquatic Invasive Species II

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10750_2018_3551_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplemental Fig 1 Cumulative NAS detections grouped by decade from 1970 to 2013. Total detections per decade are displayed in the upper right corner of each panel. Each detection is represented by a closed black circle. Detections were included in a decade if they occurred between the 1st of January and the 31st of December, i.e. detections in the 1970s decade were from Jan. 1 1970 to Dec. 31 1979. We employed an assumption that after the initial detection, the species was treated as if it persisted from one decade to the next from the earliest detection onward. Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 1192 kb)

10750_2018_3551_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplemental Fig 2 Method for delineating areas of pathway influence (API). Port and marina pathway locations were merged based on buffer distances. Buffers were applied to pathway locations, and if overlap occurred (A), the areas of pathway influence (API) were merged, and all associated attributes of pathway intensity were summed together (B). The buffer distance for ports and cities was 10km; the marina buffer was 1km. To maintain discrete areas, cities APIs were not merged under any circumstances (C). If overlap would occur for two city API, the border between the two became the dividing line. Supplementary material 2 (TIFF 1602 kb)

10750_2018_3551_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Supplemental Fig 3 Method for delineated composite APIs. For multiple logistic analyses, APIs had to be categorized into all possible combinations of the three pathway APIs. When spatial overlap of the individual APIs occurred, a new multivariable API was created with all the associated intensity metrics of the underlying APIs. If only two pathway APIs overlapped, the metric for the third pathway was assigned a zero value. Supplementary material 3 (TIFF 1296 kb)

10750_2018_3551_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Supplemental Table 1 Comparison of commercial boat traffic simple logistic regression models. Significance was determined at a = 0.01; there were no significant relationships in the aquaria species models (omitted). Model fit values (-2*log(likelihood)) are displayed for significant results (*); p-values are displayed for non-significant results. ‘NV’ indicates that the analysis had no variation. Trips were categorized as discharging and non-discharging ballast water. Cargo was categorized into domestic (U.S. and Canada) and foreign origins. Highly invaded ports were defined as the top quartile ports for NAS richness (>7 species). Supplementary material 4 (TIFF 603 kb)

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O’Malia, E.M., Johnson, L.B. & Hoffman, J.C. Pathways and places associated with nonindigenous aquatic species introductions in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Hydrobiologia 817, 23–40 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3551-x

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