Fine-scale analysis of heavily invaded Italian freshwater fish assemblages

Abstract

Inland waters are highly vulnerable to the introduction and spread of non-native species, due to heavy human use of aquatic ecosystems and the natural linkages among streams and lakes. This is particularly noticeable in freshwater fish communities. To better evaluate how these communities are affected by non-native species introductions, we conducted a fine-scale analysis of the changes in Italian freshwater fish assemblages after species introduction. For this analysis, we collected information on fish species present in 44 basins. The present Italian freshwater fish fauna is composed of 48 native and 41 established introduced species, while a further 15 introduced species have been reported but are not yet considered naturalized. The changes in the fish assemblages mostly took place in the past 2 centuries and have increased recently, with nearly 60% of the species introduced in the past 3 decades. The number of species introduced per basin ranged from 0 to 35 (mean 10.85 ± 7.77 species/basin), and in 10 basins the number of species introduced is now equal to or even higher than the number of native species. In the past, introduced species mainly originated from America, but over the past three decades, an increase of introductions from other parts of Europe and Asia has been recorded. Our results show that basins already rich in native species tend to become even richer as a consequence of the establishment of introduced species. This confirms the trend toward a biotic homogenization of ecosystems even at a local scale, due to an increase in the human-mediated spread of generalist species.

Keywords: Ichthyofauna; Italy; biological invasions; non-native species; species introductions.