Aquatic Invasive Species

The water flea (Daphnia lumholtzi) is a cladoceran native to Eastern Africa, Australia and the Asian subcontinent of India and was first reported in 1991 in an Eastern Texas.

Dagram Frisch and Lawrence Weider of the University of Oklahoma are examining the ecological genetics of D. lumholtzi in Lake Texoma, Texas, USA. As no spatial and or temporal survey of the genetic variation of the specie was ever conducted in this lake, they took a combined approach of field surveys and controlled lab experiments to examine the seasonal variation of in the Lake Texcoma population.

The population genetic structure of the D. lumholtzi was observed on 22 dates for a three year period along with temperature and salinity gradient. A two-allele polymorphism at the PGI locius was discovered. Frisch and Weider concluded that the rapid expansion and micro evolutionary dynamics of D. lumholtzi throughout North America might be a result of the genetic and environmental interactions. [156]
Sources: Freshwater Biology 2010, 55:1327-1336 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2427.2009.02356.x

An examination of the field work done by a volunteer-based monitoring program  in tracking and identifying an aquatic invasive species showed that the program’s methods were successful in detecting the species most of the time.

Stephanie A. Boudreau and Norman M. Yan of the Department of Biology at York University in Toronto, Canada audited the methods of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters’s program for the tracking of the invasive water flea, Bythotrephes longimanus. They found that the O.F.A.H.’s protocols for volunteer detection of Bythotrephes were 100% accurate in Harp Lake and incorrect only 14% of the time at the other sampled body of water,  Sugar Lake.

From the results of the study, Boudreau and Yan concluded that the O.F.A.H. volunteers produced authentic, definitive results and demonstrated that the citizen help and participation in the detection of this invasive water flea are in fact beneficial.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 91: 17–26, 2004.