The culture of the invasive Artemia franciscana: A serious threat to endemic parthenogenetic Artemia population of Maharlo lake, Iran
Alireza Asem1; Mansour Aliabadian2,3*
1) Protectors of Urmia Lake National Park Society (NGO), Urmia, Iran
2) Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
3) Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), Department of Ornithology, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Summary:
North American brine shrimp Artemia franciscana, is being used as an economical aquatic animal for aquaculture industries in many countries all over the world. North American brine shrimp, as an exotic species have already been exported worldwide whereas this species is native to America. Invasion by this exotic species is one of the most important factors to threat the global biodiversity of Artemia. North American brine shrimp are mainly spread between continents as a result of human being activities for fish farming proposes. In Iran, Maharlo Lake is one of these typical examples. Since 1996 when A. franciscana has been introduced into this lake the native parthenogenesis population of Artemia has been drastically decreased and tend to be disappeared from the fauna of the lake. In this study we discussed the possible routs that this species via them might be able to reach to the lake and also the impact of this introduction on the local biodiversity of lake. Today, the problem of introduction of non-native species continues into other lakes in Iran. As a result, native species of brine shrimps are threatened and becoming increasingly homogenized.
