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Invasive freshwater crayfish: a new ecosystem component and its challenge to risk assessment

Due to their high commercial value exotic freshwater crayfish have been introduced to many freshwater ecosystems. Being very mobile and able to escape designated water bodies over land crayfish soon spread far beyond their initial points of introduction. Today almost every European country harbors at least one species of exotic crayfish. Being carriers of the fungal infection known as crayfish plague (lethal to indigenous crayfish) and strong ecosystem engineers through mechanical interference or active predation freshwater crayfish heavily impact macrophytes, invertebrate and vertebrate communities in many ways and therefore are often considered pests. However, invasive crayfish have also become an important part of the diet of larger fish, birds, and mammals. In combination with strong crayfish feeding on organic matter this might result in an additional exposure route in the food chain. Although being hardy creatures, its large size and aggressive territorial behavior make most crayfish challenging test subjects in the laboratory. In this poster we present several tried techniques used in crayfish testing and provide solutions covering the challenges crayfish pose to risk assessment.

aquatic ecosystem; crayfish; invasive; risk assessment

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