Nowadays, the spread of animal and plant invasive (i.e., nonindigenous, alien, exotic) species is considered to be one of the most dangerous threats to native ecosystems. Establishment of an invasive species often negatively affects aboriginal populations, leading to decrease of biodiversity both in species and genetic aspects. As a consequence, successful biological invasions may be accompanied with considerable economic expenses. Thus, the elaboration of scientifically based strategies for management of bioinvasions is currently an extremely urgent question all over the World. Among others, these strategies include the development of regional alien species databases which can be used to monitor the distribution of invaders and to predict their potential ecological impacts (Panov et al. 2004).

The Republic of Belarus contains a considerable part of the so called ‘central invasion corridor’ (Bij de Vaate et al. 2002), i.e. the Dnieper River with its large tributaries Pripyat, Berezina, and Sozh (see figure below). In the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries, three interbasin canals connecting the Dnieper River with several rivers of the Baltic Sea basin were constructed for international trade (see figure below and section ‘Environment’). These canals established corridors for shipping and trade among Black and Baltic Sea basins that previously had no hydrological links, and also provided important passages for the introduction of numerous Ponto-Caspian aquatic species into Eastern and Western Europe (Mordukhai-Boltovskoi 1964; Bij de Vaate et al. 2002; Jazdzewski and Konopacka 2002; Olenin 2002; Karatayev et al. 2007).

Map of the Republic of Belarus. Dashed lines indicate the drainage basins of the Zapadnaya Dvina (ZD), Dnieper (D), Neman (N), Pripyat (P), Zapadnyi Bug (ZB), and Lovat (L) rivers.

In the 20th century, new vectors appeared for introduction and spread of aquatic nonindigenous species within Belarus. These are: commercial fishing subsidized by government (Karatayev et al. 2003), deliberate introduction of commercially important species (e.g., shrimp Macrobrachium nipponense and number of fish species: Khmeleva et al. 1982; Kokhnenko and Borovik 1973), accidental introductions associated with deliberate ones (e.g., gastropod Physella integra: Karatayev 1988), and natural (i.e. secondary) spread of exotics previously introduced to Europe (e.g., crustacean Orconectes limosus: Alekhnovich 1999). As a result, in the 20th century (especially in its second half) both donor regions and vectors of spread of nonindigenous species became more diverse.

Although the waterways of Belarus played and are likely to still play an important role in the spread of different aquatic exotics, until now this country remained a ‘blank spot’ on European distribution maps of invasive species. The reasons for this situation are diverse, but firstly they include the absence of a national strategy in the field of biological invasions, poor financing of corresponding scientific studies and a critical lack of taxonomical specialists in major groups of aquatic invertebrates (First national report 1998). As a result, so far only the most annoying, high impact invasive species were revealed and investigated satisfactorily, for example, the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Karatayev 1983; Burlakova 1998; Karatayev et al. 2000, 2002; Mastitsky 2004). Information on other species is highly dispersed among different sources (both literature and verbal), most of which are not readily accessible, especially for non-Russian scientists. At the same time, easy access to such information could become crucial for further understanding of both vectors and routes of aquatic invasions throughout Europe.

We developed this web-site to address the latter problem. The key module of the site is a searchable database which was composed after the analysis of more than 200 papers on aquatic animals from Belarusian waters published during the last 100 years (section ‘Search’). The database contains entries for alien invertebrates and fish and allows visitors to retrieve corresponding data by scientific taxonomy (for most species, the taxonomy was taken from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System). Information on Belarusian water resources and history of construction and functioning of the interbasin canals is presented in the section ‘Environment’. As many of the analyzed publications are rare and/or difficult to get, we prepared their downloadable PDF versions and placed them in the section ‘Literature’. In the section ‘Links’ one can find the web addresses of number of sites related to the problem of aquatic invasions. The section ‘Authors’ contains contact information and CV’s of the authors of the database.

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation of the Republic of Belarus

Belarusian State University

Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research

European Commission 6th Framework Programme Integrated Project ALARM (Contract GOCE-CT-2003-506675).

We hope this website will be helpful for your project. You can help us develop it further by making a donation.

Except where otherwise indicated, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Please refer to this site as:

Mastitsky SE, Karatayev AY and Burlakova LE (2008) Aquatic invaders of Belarus: Alien species database. Available at: www.aliensinbelarus.com

References:

• Alekhnovich AV (1999) Possible consequences of the introduction of American striped crayfish for Belarusian fauna. In: Abstracts of the International conference ‘Europe is our home’. Minsk, p 122 [in Russian]

• Bij de Vaate A, Jazdzewski K, Ketelaars HAM, Gollasch S and Van der Velde G (2002) Geographical patterns in range extension of Ponto-Caspian macroinvertebrate species in Europe. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 59: 1159-1174

• Burlakova LE (1998) Ecology of Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas) and its role in the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. PhD Thesis, Zoology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk [in Russian]

• First national report on implementation of Convention on biological diversity in Belarus (1998). Pikulik MM (ed). Belsens Press, Minsk [in Russian]

• Jazdzewski K and Konopacka A (2002) Invasive Ponto-Caspian species in waters of the Vistula and Oder basins and the southern Baltic Sea. In: Leppäkoski E, Gollasch S and Olenin S (eds) Invasive aquatic species of Europe: Distribution, impacts and management. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp 384-398

• Karatayev AY (1983) Ecology of Dreissena polymorpha Pallas and its effects on macrozoobenthos of the thermal power plant's cooling reservoir. PhD Thesis, Zoology Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Belarusian SSR, Minsk [in Russian]

• Karatayev AY (1988) Ecology of macroinvertebrates of cooling reservoirs of Belarus (paper 875-B88 Dep). VINITI Press, Minsk [in Russian]

• Karatayev AY, Burlakova LE, Molloy DP and Volkova LK (2000) Endosymbionts of Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas) in Belarus. International Review of Hydrobiology 85: 543-559

• Karatayev AY, Burlakova LE and Padilla DK (2002) Impacts of zebra mussels on aquatic communities and their role as ecosystem engineers. In: Leppäkoski E, Gollasch S and Olenin S (eds) Invasive aquatic species of Europe: Distribution, impacts and management. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp 433-446

• Karatayev AY, Burlakova LE, Padilla DK and Johnson LE (2003) Patterns of spread of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas)): the continuing invasion of Belarusian lakes. Biological Invasions 5(3): 213-221

• Karatayev AY, Padilla DK, Minchin D, Boltovskoy D and Burlakova LE (2007) Changes in global economies and trade: the potential spread of exotic freshwater bivalves. Biological Invasions 9(2): 161-180

• Khmeleva NN, Giginyak YG, Kulesh VF and Alekhnovich AV (1982) Biological background of the introduction of subtropical prawn Macrobrachiun nipponense into cooling reservoir of Berezovskay power plant (BSSR). Izvestiya AN BSSR, Ser. biolog. nauk. (paper 5014-82 Dep.). VINITI Press, Minsk [in Russian]

• Kokhnenko SV and Borovik EA (1973) Introduction and acclimatization of fishes in BSSR. In: Petrovich PG, Zhukov PI, Kokhnenko SV and Lykhnovich VP (eds) Proceedings of the XV scientific conference ‘Biological studies in inland waterbodies of the Baltic Sea region’. Vysheyshaya Shkola Press, Minsk, pp 168-171

• Mastitsky SE (2004) Endosymbionts of bivalve mollusc Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas) in waterbodies of Belarus. PhD Thesis, Zoology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk [in Russian]

• Mordukhai-Boltovskoi FD (1964) Caspian fauna beyond the Caspian Sea. Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie 49: 139-176

• Olenin S (2002) Black Sea – Baltic Sea invasion corridors. In: F Briand (ed) Alien marine organisms introduced by ships in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. CIESM Workshops Monograph. Comission Internationale pour l'Exploration Scientifique de la mer Mediterranee, Monaco, pp 29-33

• Panov VE, Lobanov AL, Dianov MB and Shestakov VS (2004) Importance of open information systems and databases on invasive species. In: Alimov AF and Bogutskaya NG (eds) Biological invasions in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. KMK Scientific Press Ltd. Moscow – Saint Petersburg, pp. 347-357 [in Russian]